By: Eman Ghaly

Mubasher: The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) closed the week ended 18 January up, buoyed by six companies' fourth-quarter 2017 earnings announcement.

The main index increased 0.7%, or 64.24 points, to finish the week at 9,200.10 points.

The world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has witnessed key events this week, with growing tension with UAE after announcing on Monday that Qatari fighter jets had intercepted UAE civilian aircraft during their scheduled flight to Bahrain.

As a result, the Qatari bourse lost around QAR 10 billion of its market capitalisation.

Moreover, six QSE-listed companies, including Gulf Warehousing Company, Qatar National Bank (QNB) and Widam Food Company, revealed their financial statements and subsequent dividends for the fourth quarter of 2017.

Market capitalisation went up 0.5% to QAR 504.7 billion over the week, from QAR 502.2 billion in the prior week.

The QSE’s liquidity rose 1.5% to QAR 1.55 billion from QAR 1.53 billion during the previous week, while the market’s trading volume hiked 14.7% to 71.8 million shares from62.6 million.

The stock market's transactions grew 6.4% to 24,100 in the third week of 2018 from 25,700 a week earlier.

The goods and services sector topped the QSE's four gainers with 1.55%, followed by the industrial, the banking and telecommunications with 1.26%, 0.82% and 0.60%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the insurance sector led three losers falling 6.74%, followed by the real estate with 2.90% and the transportation with 1.06%.

While, the banking sector topped the QSE in terms of liquidity with 46.1%, followed by the industrial, goods, and real estate sectors which recorded 20.2%, 11.1% and 10.3%, respectively.

QNB’s stock led the market in terms of turnover, making up 11.8%, while Masraf Al Rayan saw 10.5% hike, and Qatar First Bank soared 8.6%.

Over the course of the week, 15 stocks levelled up, spearheaded by Widam Food Company, which gained 9.07%, while 30 stocks dropped, headed by Qatar Insurance, which slid 8.3%.

Translated by: Kholoud Mohamed Hussein