Financial Expert to QNA: QSE Index Declines for 2nd Week Due to FTSE Review

Doha, March 20 (QNA) - The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index ended this week's trading down by 0.76 percent, losing around 79.5 points to stand at 10,343 points, under pressure from the financial sector, which recorded a negative performance of 1.3 percent, followed by the telecommunications sector with a 1.1 percent decline, while the services sector achieved the highest gains with a 1.1 percent gain.

In this context, investment manager at Qatar Securities Company (QS) Ramzi Qasmieh told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the QSE index has declined for the second consecutive week due to the implementation of the FTSE index review, which witnessed some natural pressures on leading stocks such as Nakilat and Milaha.

Analyzing the weekly performance of stocks, Qasmieh noted that Dukhan Bank achieved the largest gains, rising 2.8 percent, followed by Baladna with a 2.3 percent gain. Meanwhile, Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) and Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) recorded the largest declines, falling 4.9 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.

The investment manager at QS noted selling pressure on some leading stocks this week, such as QNB and QIB.

Qasmieh highlighted the changes made to the weights of some Qatari companies in the FTSE index during today's session. However, the value of these changes was lower than previously, as they did not exceed the QR 612 million mark today, which usually approached the QR one billion mark when such a review was implemented.

He noted that the QSE index closed the last session of the week down by about 0.4 percent, at 10,343 points, its lowest close in more than six months, indicating that it is close to testing a key support level near 10,288 points. (QNA)