By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

The Qatar Exchange yesterday entered the fourth day of bearish run to settle below the 11,300 mark, mainly dragged by industrials, real estate and transport stocks.

Institutional investors’ profit-booking was intense as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price index) fell 0.72% to 11,340.12 points.

Small and large-cap equities bore the maximum brunt, leading to an erosion of more than QR5bn in capitalisation.

However, selling pressure from local retail investors eased in the market, which is up 8.47% year-to-date.

Trading volumes were on the rise and overall it was skewed towards realty and industrials sectors.

The 20-stock Total Return Index fell 0.72% to 16,646.69 points, the All Share Index (with wider constituents) by 0.66% to 2,882.2 and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.71% to 3,452.86 points.

All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.

Industrials stocks plunged 1.42%, followed by real estate (1.41%), transport (0.81%), telecom (0.5%), consumer goods (0.31%) and banks and financial services (0.28%); while insurance gained 0.94%.

More than 63% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being QNB, Industries Qatar, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company, Masraf Al Rayan, Barwa, Nakilat, Gulf International Services and Vodafone Qatar.

However, Doha Bank, Commercial Bank, Mazaya Qatar and Widam Food bucked the trend.

Market capitalisation melted 0.8% to QR624.83bn. Small, large and mid-cap equities fell 1.07%, 0.63% and 0.4% respectively; whereas micro caps were up a marginal 0.01%.

Qatari retail investors’ net selling was QR1.42mn compared to QR10.04mn the previous day.

Domestic institutions’ net selling stood at QR22.61mn against QR11.71mn on Sunday.

Non-Qatari individual investors were net profit-takers to the tune of QR3.79mn compared with net buyers of QR2.42mn the previous day.

Foreign institutions’ net buying amounted to QR27.82mn against QR19.33mn on Sunday.

Total trading volume rose 35% to 15.85mn stocks and value by 15% to QR505.79mn but transactions fell 17% to 7,022.

The real estate sector’s trading volume almost tripled to 8.95mn equities and value more than doubled to QR151.73mn on more than doubled deals to 1,831.

The market witnessed a 37% surge in the transport sector’s trading volume to 0.81mn shares, 10% in value to QR19.31mn and 5% in transactions to 363.

The consumer goods sector saw its trading volume gain 25% to 0.95mn stocks, value by 37% to QR59.51mn and deals by 30% to 664.

However, the insurance sector’s trading volume plummeted 60% to 0.02mn equities, value by 62% to QR0.91mn and transactions by 68% to 17.

The industrials sector saw its trading volume plunge 35% to 3.11mn shares, value by 20% to QR165.07mn and deals by 44% to 2,825.

The banks and financial services sector reported a 16% shrinkage in trading volume to 1.4mn stocks but value rose 2% to QR86.15mn. Transactions were down 20% to 1,137.

The telecom sector’s trading volume tanked 15% to 0.62mn equities, while value soared 57% to QR23.1mn; even as deals were down 19% to 185.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

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