By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange witnessed sustained gains for the second day yesterday and settled a tad below the 12,000 mark.
Insurance saw the most buying interests as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) rose 0.5% to 11,980.66 points as trade volumes grew.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining much slower in the bourse, which is, however, down 2.48% year-to-date.
Foreign institutions continued to be net buyers in the market, where real estate, banks and industrials stocks cornered about 85% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation rose 0.46%, or about QR3bn, to QR653.12bn.
The Total Return Index gained 0.5% to 17,869.04 points, the All Share Index by 0.51% to 3,080.21 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.09% to 4,055.72 points.
Insurance stocks zoomed 2.69%, followed by industrials (0.68%), banks and financial services (0.63%) and transport (0.16%); whereas consumer goods shrank 0.46%, telecom (0.14%) and realty (0.1%).
Major movers included Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Qatar Insurance, QNB, Commercial Bank, International Islamic, Masraf Al Rayan, Al Khaliji, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar and Vodafone Qatar.
However, Barwa, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatari Investors Group, Alijarah Holding and Ooredoo bucked the trend.
Foreign institutions’ net buying rose to QR42.52mn against QR33.77mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying strengthened to QR4.29mn compared to QR2.65mn on Tuesday.
Qatari retail investors’ net profit-booking fell to QR11.25mn against QR11.47mn on Tuesday.
Domestic institutions’ net selling surged to QR35.56mn compared to QR24.95mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 47% to 11.77mn shares, value by 33% to QR504.42mn and transactions by 14% to 6,046.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew 13-fold to 0.52mn stocks and value by more than 15-fold to QR43.53mn on an about-seven-fold rise in deals to 305.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 5.53mn equities and value more than tripled to QR114.89mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 1,485.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.31mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR14.98mn on a 22% jump in deals to 189.
The industrials sector saw its trade volume surged 54% to 2mn shares, value by 12% to QR115mn and transactions by 19% to 1,529.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 64% to 0.75mn equities, value by 57% to QR18.66mn and deals by 46% to 489.
The market witnessed a 40% plunge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.21mn stocks but value rose 17% to QR12.5mn. Transactions were down 3% to 224.
The banks and financial services reported a 14% shrinkage in trade volume 2.44mn shares, while value was up 3% to QR184.86mn. Deals tanked 12% to 1,825.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

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