Foreign funds drag Qatar Stock Exchange sentiments as index plummets 188 points; M-cap erodes over $1bln

Foreign funds drag Qatar Stock Exchange sentiments as index plummets 188 points; M-cap erodes over $1bln

The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) remained under bearish spell this week which otherwise saw the country’s sovereign wealth fund commit QR1bn to improve liquidity in the bourse.

The foreign institutions were increasingly net profit takers as the 20-stock Qatar Index lost 1.77% or 185 points this week which saw HE the Qatar Central Bank governor Sheikh Bandar bin Mohamed bin Saoud al-Thani categorically view that there was no need to change the existing fixed exchange rate parity with the dollar.

The domestic institutions were also increasingly net sellers in the main market this week which saw Al Mahhar announce its plans to get listed on the venture market of the QSE in the first week of June.

Movers were however seen outnumbering shakers in the main bourse this week which saw Investment Promotion Agency Qatar say that Doha has a strong pipeline of foreign direct investment projects.

The Islamic equities were seen declining slower than the other indices this week which saw the Economic Intelligence Unit aver that Qatar's banking sector risk is among the lowest in the Middle East.

The banking and industrials counters witnessed higher than average selling pressure this week which featured a Kamco Invest study that found Qatar's inflation to average