By Santhosh V Perumal
The Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday crossed the 13,900 mark with much ease, gaining for the fourth consecutive session, in spite of weakness in the world energy market.
Buying interests – especially in the telecom, consumer goods, banks and real estate –lifted the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) by 0.66% to 13,901.08 points as volumes also expanded.
Institutional buying support was rather instrumental in sustaining bullish momentum in the market, which is up 33.93% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stock was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the bourse, where realty, banks and transport stocks together accounted for about 74% of the total trading volume.
The Total Return Index rose 0.66% to 20,733.32 points, the All Share Index by 0.62% to 3,522.44 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.02% to 4,747.11 points.
Market capitalisation rose 0.41%, or more than QR3bn, to QR751.87bn with micro, mid, small and large cap equities gaining 1.05%, 0.96%, 0.94% and 0.59% respectively.
Telecom stocks surged 0.98%, followed by consumer goods (0.97%), banks and financial services (0.83%), realty (0.76%), transport (0.42%) and industrials (0.22%); whereas insurance was down 0.05%.
More than 67% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Al Khaleej Takaful, Barwa, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Nakilat and Qatari Investors Group.
However, QNB, Industries Qatar, Ezdan, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Al Meera bucked the trend.
Foreign institutions’ net buying rose to QR66.83mn against QR45.68mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net selling plunged to QR34.69mn compared to QR68.28mn on November 18.
However, Qatari retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR20.35mn against net buyers of QR21.62mn on Tuesday.
Non-Qatari individual investors also turned net profit takers to the extent of QR11.56mn compared with net buyers of QR0.98mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 36% to 16.47mn shares, value by 36% to QR1.11bn and transactions by 6% to 9,033.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.45mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR144.63mn on a 45% jump in deals to 775.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 52% surge in trade volume to 4.14mn stocks, 53% in value to QR374.47mn and 20% in transactions to 2,691.
The consumer goods sector saw its trade volume expand 42% to 1.78mn shares, value by 46% to QR229.44mn and deals by 20% to 1,364.
The market witnessed a 35% rise in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 5.55mn equities and 22% in value to QR169.18mn but on a 12% fall in transactions to 1,668.
The insurance sector’s trade volume roe 4% to 0.47mn stocks, value by 15% to QR30.66mn and deals by 9% to 332.
The industrials sector’s trade volume was up 1% to 1.31mn shares; whereas value shrank 12% to QR134.87mn and transactions by 9% to 1,855.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 32% to 0.78mn equities and value by 4% to QR28.66mn while deals rose 1% to 348.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
