An across-the-board buying, particularly in the telecom, realty and banking stocks, yesterday led the 20-stock Qatar Index to gain 1.31% to 14,350.5 points on substantial expansion in volumes.
By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter
Foreign institutions increasingly bought stocks yesterday to lift the Qatar Stock Exchange, whose key index inched near the 14,400 mark and capitalisation rose by more than QR10bn.
An across-the-board buying, particularly in the telecom, realty and banks, led the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) gain 1.31% to 14,350.5 points on substantial expansion in volumes.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining slower than the other indices in the market, which is up 38.26% year-to-date.
The Total Return Index rose 1.31% to 21,403.63 points, the All Share Index by 1.18% to 3,621.54 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.87% to 4,843.47 points.
Domestic institutions increasingly booked profits on the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards real estate and banking stocks.
Market capitalisation swelled 1.38% to QR762.57bn. Large-cap equities gained about 2%, mid caps 1% and micro caps 0.11%, while small caps fell 0.1%.
Telecom indeed appreciated 2.72%, followed by realty (1.66%), consumer goods (1.33%), insurance (1.05%), industrials (0.92%), transport (0.2%) and consumer goods (0.14%).
More than 64% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being QNB, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Ezdan, Barwa, Qatar Islamic Insurance, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar and Gulf International Services.
However, al khaliji, Aamal Company, Qatari Investors Group and Salam International Investment bucked the trend.
Foreign institutions’ net buying shot up to QR174.45mn compared to QR23.78mn the previous day.
Qatari retail investors’ net buying rose to QR58.86mn against QR12.81mn on Wednesday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling surged to QR20mn compared to QR16.62mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking surged to QR213.31mn against QR19.92mn on Wednesday.
Total trading volume almost tripled to 28.39mn shares; value rose 77% to QR834.36mn and transactions by 34% to 7,521.
The real estate sector’s trade volume grew more than nine-fold to 19.09mn equities and value by more than eight-fold to QR407.53mn on almost-quadrupled-deals to 2,717.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 66% surge in trade volume to 5.62mn stocks and 43% in value to QR319.18mn, but there was a 4% fall in transactions to 2,193.
The transport sector’s trade volume soared 39% to 0.46mn shares and value by 21% to QR14.63mn, while deals were down 6% to 184.
The industrials sector’s trading volume expanded 32% to 1.04mn equities, value by 35% to QR101.02mn and transactions by 14% to 1,367.
The insurance sector’s trading volume was up 4% to 0.27mn stocks but value shrank 15% to QR19.61mn and deals by 4% to 242.
However, the consumer goods sector saw its trade volume plummet 40% to 0.81mn shares, value by 20% to QR34.99mn and transactions by 16% to 452.
The market witnessed a 31% shrinkage in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.09mn equities, 14% in value to QR37.39mn and 4% in deals to 366.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
UAE stocks up on FTSE index review
An influx of foreign funds due to changes in some FTSE indexes boosted stock markets in the UAE and Qatar yesterday, while Egyptian real estate developer Medinet Nasr surged after announcing an ambitious sales target.
Dubai’s main index rose 2.3% as Emaar Properties, the emirate’s largest developer, jumped 5.0% to 11.60 dirhams.
Emaar had peaked at 12dirhams this month after announcing the launch of the initial public offer of its subsidiary Emaar Malls Group (EMG). But the stock then came under pressure as retail investors sold some of their holdings in the parent company in order to raise cash for purchases of EMG. That wave of selling appears to have ended.
Shares in smaller developers Deyaar and Union Properties added 3.2 and 2.8% respectively ahead of their inclusion in the FTSE All-World index, which will take effect on September 22.
The index compiler is also adding Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to the benchmark, but the lender’s shares fell 1.1% yesterday, having already added 6.8% since the announcement on Sept 4.
However, other banking stocks helped lift Abu Dhabi’s bourse by 1.2%. National Bank of Abu Dhabi jumped 5.8% and First Gulf Bank rose 1.3%.
The main Saudi index slipped 0.2% as some banks and petrochemicals pulled back. Al Rajhi Bank edged down 0.6% and Yanbu National Petrochemical Co fell 1.3%.
Egypt’s bourse rose 1.6% to a fresh six-year closing high of 9,729 points. Property firm Medinet Nasr for Housing and Development surged its daily limit of 10% to 47.43 Egyptian pounds after saying in a bourse statement that it targeted sales of 2.0bn pounds ($280mn) from its Tag Sultan project.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait’s index edged up 0.2% to 7,598 points; Oman’s index inched up 0.1% to 7,505 points, while Bahrain’s index slipped 0.4% to 1,467 points.
