QSE Tops GCC Bourses in Trade Volume Growth in Q2: Kamco Invest

The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) topped among the Gulf bourses in terms of expansion in trading volume during the second quarter (Q2) of 2025, according to Kamco Invest, a regional non-bank finance firm.

Foreign investors (institutions and retail) were net buyers to the tune of $333.6mn on the QSE during April-June this year, Kamco said a latest report.

In terms of the aggregate trading activity, total GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) volume traded increased by 9.1% year on year to 94.73bn shares in Q2-2025 compared to 86.8bn in Q1-2025.

The report found that most of the GCC bourses reported a quarter-on-quarter gain in volume during Q2-2025, barring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

"Qatar topped the list with a gain of 39.4% to record 12.5bn in Q2-2025 compared to 8.9bn in Q1-2025, followed by Dubai with 21% to record 16.3bn in Q2-2025 vs 13.4bn in Q1-2025," the report said.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain declined 5% and 61.5% in Q2-2025, respectively.

Foreign investors, including institutional and retail investors, were net buyers on the GCC stock markets during Q2-2025 with net buying at $4.2bn against $2.8bn during Q1-2025. The trend remained positive, with buying in four months and net selling in two months during the first half (H1) of 2025 to $7bn vs $5bn in H1-2024 up by 39.8% year-on-year.

The biggest buying was seen in Saudi Arabia with total net buying of $1.4bn. The UAE stood next with Abu Dhabi bourse also seeing consecutive buying by foreigners that reached $1.33bn in Q2-2025.

Kuwait was next with net buy of $696.5mn by foreigners, followed by Dubai and Qatar bourses with net buy of $462mn and $333.6mn, respectively.

Meanwhile, foreign investors were biggest sellers of Omani stocks with net sales of $29.6mn during the quarter, followed by $459.2mn in net sell trades during the previous quarter. Bahrain showed net selling at $27.9mn for Q2-2025.

The monthly trend (excluding Bahrain on data unavailability) showed Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar bourses saw consecutive buying by foreigners during the three months of the quarter.

Conversely, Saudi Arabia saw net selling by foreign investors in April 2025, followed by net buying in the next two months. Oman was the only exchange in the GCC that witnessed net sale by foreign investors during all the three months of the quarter.

"Some of the key factors that affected the flow of foreign money in the region included regional market trends, initial public offerings or IPOs, geopolitical issues, economic health of the individual countries and crude oil prices," Kamco said.