Transport stocks boosted the Qatar Exchange yesterday, a trend that also saw steady accretion to capitalisation.
Mid, micro and large caps were most sought after as the 20-stock QE Index (based on price data) settled 0.46% higher at 8,448.35 points. The market is, however, down 3.77% year-to-date.
The 20-stock Total Return Index also rose 0.46% to 11,433.67 points and the All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.35% to 2,036.33 points respectively. Both the indices factored in dividend income as well.
Under the All Share Index category, the transport index shot up 2.47%, followed by industrials (0.495), telecom (0.43%), real estate (0.35%) and banks and financial services (0.13%), while the indices of insurance and consumer goods fell 0.73% and 0.23% respectively.
Market capitalisation was up 0.23%, or more than QR1bn, to QR461.78bn with mid, micro and large cap equities gaining 0.50%, 0.33% and 0.21% respectively; even as small caps were down 0.02%.
Of the 42 stocks, 20 advanced, while 15 declined, three were unchanged and four were not traded.
Domestic institutions’ net buying fell to 7.35% or QR10.73mn. A lower 42.66% of them bought equities compared to 44.87% last Thursday, whereas a higher 35.31% offloaded against 29.21%.
Foreign institutions’ net selling sunk to 15.20% or QR22.20mn. A lower 6.84% of them were into buying against 8.84% last Thursday, but a much lower 15.20% of them into selling compared to 43.19%.
Qatari individual investors’ net buying fell to 6.21% or QR9.07mn. A higher 39.71% of them purchased equities compared to 35.90% last Thursday and a higher 33.50% sold against 19.25%.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ net buying was down to 1.63% or QR2.38mn. A marginally higher 10.78% of them were into buying against 10.39% last Thursday and a marginally higher 9.15% compared to 8.35%.
Total trading volume gained 16% to 2.55mn shares; value by 39% to QR146.02mn and deals by 19% to 1,858.
The transport sector’s trading volume jumped almost seven-fold to 0.55mn shares and value by more than 14-fold to QR25.48mn as transactions jumped more than six-fold to 478.
The industrials sector’s trading volume doubled to 0.44mn shares, value rose 9% to QR21.72mn and deals by 9% to 359.
The insurance sector’s trading volume doubled to 0.02mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR0.97mn on more than doubled transactions to 37.
The telecom sector’s trading volume soared 50% to 0.06mn shares, value by 27% to QR2.32mn and deals by 57% to 69.
However, the real estate sector’s trading volume tanked 28% to 0.34mn shares and value by 11% to QR7.30mn whereas transactions gained 31% to 212.
The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume declined 19% to 1.06mn shares, while value rose 22% to QR81.77mn but deals were down 28% to 571.
The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume was rather flat at 0.09mn shares, while value rose 21% to QR6.45mn while transactions fell 4% to 132.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were QNB (432,540 shares); Milaha (325,652); Masraf Al Rayan (252,556); Qatari Investors Group (247,307) and Nakilat (200,350).
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills.
