By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
The Qatar Stock Exchange was back in the negative trajectory yesterday with local retail investors largely squaring off their positions.
Foreign institutions continued to be bearish as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) shed 0.84% to 13,728.31 points amidst almost doubling of volumes.
Large and small cap equities witnessed stronger profit-booking in the market, which is up 32.26% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stock was seen melting slower than the other indices in the bourse, where trading volume was largely skewed towards real estate and banking stocks.
The Total Return Index fell 0.84% to 20,475.64 points, the All Share Index by 0.73% to 3,472.27 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.56% to 4,660.1 points.
Non-Qatari individual investors were, however, increasingly bullish in the bourse, where capitalisation eroded 0.23%, or about QR2bn, to QR736.07bn.
Telecom stocks shrank 1.26%, followed by industrials (1.19%), realty (0.69%), banks and financial services (0.67%), transport (0.2%) and insurance (0.03%); while consumer goods rose 0.2%.
Large, small and mid cap equities tanked 0.81%, 0.6% and 0.23% respectively; while micro caps were up 0.05%.
Major shakers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, Barwa, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Qatari Investors Group, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat.
However, Ezdan, United Development Company, Salam International Investment, Aamal Company and Mannai Corp bucked the trend.
Ezdan, Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank were among the most active in terms of volume and value respectively.
Qatari retail investors’ net buying plummeted to QR4.71mn against QR53.05mn the previous day.
Foreign institutions’ net profit-booking rose to QR117.23mn compared to QR101.5mn on Monday.
Domestic institutions’ net buying surged to QR49.41mn against QR24.65mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying also rose to QR63.2mn compared to QR23.8mn on Monday.
Total trading volume rose 92% to 23.16mn shares, value by 34% to QR811.27mn and transactions by 38% to 7,617.
The real estate sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 15.34mn equities and value more than doubled to QR336.76mn on more-than-doubled deals to 3,192.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.78mn stocks, value surged 87% to QR37.49mn and transactions by 41% to 455.
The telecom sector saw its trade volume expanded 42% to 1.22mn shares, value by 58% to QR40.21mn and deals by 58% to 452.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume reported an 11% rise in trade volume to 3.93mn equities but there was a 2% dip in value to QR260.07mn. Transactions were up 1% to 1,854.
The industrials sector’s trade volume was up 3% to 1.1mn stocks, while value shrank 22% to QR103.54mn and deals by 7% to 1,264.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume plunged 23% to 0.58mn shares, value by 18% to QR19.23mn and transactions by 25% to 207.
The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 16% to 0.21mn equities, value by 22% to QR13.97mn and deals by 4% to 193.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
Foreign institutions continued to be bearish yesterday as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.84% to 13,728.31 points amidst almost doubling of volumes
Most Gulf markets rise
Most markets in the Middle East edged up yesterday with the region emerging from a wave of profit-taking.
Dubai’s bourse added 0.9% on the back of developer Emaar Properties which gained a similar amount. Its subsidiary Emaar Malls Group said on Monday it had raised $1.58bn in an IPO amid massive demand from investors, making it the largest stock offering in a Gulf Arab economy since 2008.
Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar was also quoted as saying on Monday that the company would list its hotels unit in the coming months. He did not elaborate.
Abu Dhabi’s bourse was nearly flat as heavyweight banking stocks were mixed.
Saudi Arabia’s index continued to recover from a profit-taking bout and rose 0.9%, led by banks. Saudi British Bank jumped 2.9%, Alinma Bank rose 2.3% and Samba Financial Group added 1.8%.
The rally may slow down ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday, with the bourse closed next week, and overall appetite for Saudi Arabia’ equities appears to be on the decline.
Egypt’s index rose 0.3%. Investment firm Pioneers Holding was the main support, jumping 4.1%. The company said on Monday it was in talks with Heliopolis Housing on a new development project.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait’s index edged up 0.2% to 7,622 points; Oman’s index added 0.3% to 7,484 points, while Bahrain’s index slipped 0.04% to 1,476 points.
