Major movers yesterday included QNB, IQ, Ooredoo, Mazaya Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Doha Bank, Commercial Bank, Dlala, Islamic Holding Group and Al Khaleej Insurance.
By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter
The Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday inched near the 14,000 mark, mainly supported by telecom and banking stocks.
Foreign institutions’ buying support rather lifted the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) by 0.29% to touch a new all-time high of 13,906.56 points amid shrinking volumes.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting against gains in other indices in the market, which is up 33.98% year-to-date.
Domestic institutions were however seen squaring off their position in the bourse, where trading volumes were largely skewed towards realty and banking stocks.
Market capitalisation gained 0.42%, or more than QR3bn, to QR738.33bn. Large cap equities rose 0.8%; while small and mid caps fell 0.52% and 0.25% respectively.
Telecom stocks appreciated 1.81%, followed by banks and financial services (0.53%) and industrials (0.18%); whereas real estate shrank 0.68%, insurance (0.67%), transport (0.17%) and consumer goods (0.12%).
Major movers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, Mazaya Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Doha Bank, Commercial Bank, Dlala, Islamic Holding Group and Al Khaleej Insurance.
However, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar, Salam International Investment, Qatar National Cement and Mannai Corp 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.
Foreign institutions’ net buying rose to QR121.19mn against QR104.89mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net selling, however, surged to QR115.24mn compared to QR64.26mn on Monday.
Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR16.09mn against net sellers of QR18.83mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ profit-booking rose to QR22.04mn compared to QR21.8mn on Monday.
Total trading volume fell 18% to 13.68mn shares, value by 24% to QR734.51mn and transactions by 16% to 7,165.
The banks and financial services reported a 35% plunge in trading volume to 3.55mn equities, 27% in value to QR324.58mn and 26% in deals to 2,517.
The consumer goods sector’s trading volume plummet 34% to 0.9mn stocks, value by 38% to QR37.5mn and transactions by 34% to 401.
The industrials sector saw its trading volume decline 30% to 1.3mn shares, value by 33% to QR142.05mn and deals by 26% to 1,667.
The market witnessed a 28% fall in the transport sector’s trading volume to 0.44mn equities, 40% in value to QR20.08mn and 2% in transactions to 213.
The telecom sector’s trading volume shrank 7% to 0.86mn stocks and value by 17% to QR25.81mn but deals were up 1% to 361.
The real estate sector’s trading volume was down 2% to 6.2mn shares and value by 3% to QR160.73mn while transactions gained 13% to 1,653.
However, the insurance sector’s trading volume vaulted 63% to 0.44mn equities, value by 66% to QR23.76mn and deals by 68% to 353.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
