Selling pressure mainly from foreign investors, both retail and institutional, pushed Qatari stocks down last week.

A highlight of the week was the announcement of 2009 financials by large cap holding entity, Industries Qatar (IQ), which failed to throw any surprises from the viewpoint of its shareholders.

“The results were not unexpected and the cash dividend declared by the company was just 50 percent,” noted stock analyst Bashir Al Kahloot, said in his weekly stock market analysis. Several other listed companies also held their annual general meetings (AGMs) last week but the share price of none of them went up in the aftermath due to a continuing liquidity crunch, said Al Kahloot. As a result, the main benchmark index of Qatar Exchange lost 117 points, or 1.71 percent, in the week. [Read More]