Doha, Qatar: The foreign investors were biggest sellers of Qatari stocks with net sales of $430.7m in the second quarter (Q2) of this year. While the foreign investors including institutional and retail investors remained the net buyers on GCC stock markets during the second quarter of 2024 with net buying at $3.5bn as compared to $1.5bn in net buying during first quarter (Q1) of 2024.

The trend remained positive since the start of the year with consecutive buying by foreign investors during first half (H1) of the year, a report by Kamco Invest noted.

The biggest buying was seen in Saudi Arabia with total net buying of $3.5bn. UAE was next with Abu Dhabi exchange also seeing consecutive buying by foreigners that reached $766.6m in Q2-2024. Meanwhile, foreign investors were biggest sellers of Qatari stocks with net sales of $430.7m during the quarter as compared to $67.1m in net buy trades during the previous quarter.

Kuwait was next with net sales of $296m by foreigners followed by Oman and Dubai exchanges with net sales of $44.9m and $25.4m, respectively. Data for Bahrain showed net buying at $43.3m, the highest level seen in 20 quarters during Q2-2024.

The monthly trend showed Saudi Arabia and UAE witnessed net sell trades by foreign investors during April-2024 followed by net buy trades during the remaining two months. On the other hand, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman exchanges witnessed net sales by foreign investors during the quarter.

Some of the key factors that affected the flow of foreign money in the region included regional market trends, IPOs, geopolitical issues, economic health of the individual countries and crude oil prices. The quarter saw mixed trend in the equity market and skewed towards decliners as four out of seven exchanges reported declines during Q2-2024. The expectations related to global interest rate changes also steered performance in the region.

In terms of month on month (m-o-m) performance, net buying value by foreign investors peaked during June- 2024 with aggregate monthly net buying at $3.2bn. May witnessed a decline with net buying at $596.5m while April registered the net selling at $332.3m.

Historical trend for trading by foreigners in GCC listed stocks showed declines merely in two quarter over the last five years. Foreigners bought the most stocks during Q1-2022 with net buy transactions of $11bn, reflecting steep increase in buying mainly in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

© Dar Al Sharq Press, Printing and Distribution. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).