By Santhosh V. Perumal
Business Reporter
Bearish sentiments continued in the Qatar Stock Exchange for the second day yesterday and its key index sunk below the 13,700 level, steered mainly by small and micro cap equities.
Local retail investors’ increased net selling pressure was instrumental in dragging the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) 0.47% to 13,690.02 points amid rising volumes.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stock was seen melting slower than the other indices in the bourse, which is, however, up 31.89% year-to-date.
Overall, trading was skewed towards banks, real estate and industrials, which together accounted for more than 76% of total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.47% to 20,418.54 points, All Share Index by 0.51% to 3,473.34 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.41% to 4,636.16 points.
Market capitalisation shrank 0.47% or more than QR3bn to QR742.44bn with small, micro, mid and large caps losing 1.73%, 1.16%, 0.29% and 0.21% respectively.
Insurance stocks plunged 1.38%, realty (0.975), transport (0.75), banks and financial services (0.62%), industrials (0.37%) and consumer goods (0.02%); whereas telecom surged 1.54%.
More than 68% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being QNB, Gulf International Services, International Islamic, Barwa, Ezdan, Vodafone Gulf Warehousing and Qatar Insurance Company.
However, Industries Qatar, Doha Bank and Ooredoo were seen bucking the trend.
Qatari retail investors’ net selling rose to QR53.22mn against QR42.68mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying strengthened to QR21.05mn compared to QR18.28mn on Sunday.
Foreign institutions’ net buying sunk to QR3.45mn against QR14.39mn on November 23.
Domestic institutions’ net buying surged to QR22.72mn compared to QR10.07mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 40% to 11.12mn shares, value by 44% to QR862.57mn and transactions by 40% to 7,933.
The telecom sector’s trade volume grew about 12-fold to 1.78mn equities and value more than quadrupled to QR43.85mn on more than tripled deals to 507.
The insurance sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 0.18mn stocks and value more than quadrupled to QR15.18mn on more than doubled transactions to 144.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.29mn shares and value almost tripled to QR290.84mn on 97% jump in deals to 2,610.
The banks and financial services sector reported 11% expansion in trade volume to 3.6mn equities, 20% in value to QR375.02mn and 18% in transactions to 2,791.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was up 4% to 2.61mn stocks, value by 19% to QR87.05mn and deals by 39% to 1,317.
However, there was 40% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.28mn shares, 25% in value to QR16.98mn and 25% in transactions to 202.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 30% to 0.38mn equities, value by 51% to QR33.66mn and deals by 31% to 362.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
