By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

 

The Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday opened the week weak, mainly dragged by industrials, realty and consumer goods stocks.

Local institutions and retail investors turned net sellers as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) fell 0.16% to 13,753.51 points amid shrinking volumes.

However, foreign institutions were increasingly on a buying mode in the market, which is up 32.51% year-to-date.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting faster than other indices in the market, where trading volume was extremely skewed towards banks, realty and telecom stocks.

Market capitalisation stood at QR731bn. Micro-cap equities were down 0.17%; while small and mid caps rose 0.53% and 0.25% respectively.

Transport stocks shrank 1.05%, followed by real estate (0.63%) and consumer goods (0.33%); whereas insurance rose 0.35%, industrials 0.2%, telecom 0.19% and banks and financial services gained 0.11%.

More than 64% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Qatar Islamic Bank, Mazaya Qatar, Milaha, Dlala, Zad Holding and Masraf Al Rayan. However, QNB, Industries Qatar, Qatar Islamic Insurance and International Islamic were seen to buck the trend.

Mazaya Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan and International Islamic were the most active in terms of both volume and value respectively.

Qatari retail investors were net profit-takers to the tune of QR40.8mn and institutional investors to the extent of QR50.77mn.

Non-Qatari individual investors were net buyers to the tune of QR3.91mn and institutional investors to the extent of QR87.77mn.

A total of 10.12mn stocks valued at QR521.74mn changed hands across 5,527 transactions.

The banks and financial services sector saw a total of 3.6mn equities worth QR252.88mn trade across 2,010 deals.

A total of 2.18mn real-estate shares valued at QR55.25mn changed hands across 920 transactions.

The telecom sector witnessed a total of 1.82mn stocks valued at QR52.81mn trade across 459 deals.

A total of 1.29mn industrials equities worth QR119.6mn changed hands across 1572 transactions.

Consumer goods and services sector saw a total of 0.87mn shares valued at QR25.72mn trade across 352 deals.

The transport and insurance segments saw a total of 0.2mn and 0.17mn stocks worth QR6.8mn and 8.68mn respectively change hands across 107 transactions each.

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

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