By Santhosh V. Perumal
Business Reporter
Buying interests, especially in the industrials and real estate sectors, on Sunday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange above 12,000 points, gaining as much as 162 points.
Small and mid caps were seen the most sought after as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) gained 1.37% to 12,062.1 points as trade volumes also increased.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster in the bourse, which is, however, down 1.82% year-to-date.
Foreign institutions were seen bullish amid their lower exposure in the market, where banks, realty and telecom stocks cornered about 69% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation expanded 1.14%, or more than QR7bn, to QR656.18bn with small, mid, large and micro cap equities gaining 1.82%, 1.35%, 1.02% and 1.01% respectively.
The Total Return Index rose 1.37% to 17,990.51 points, the All Share Index by 1.24% to 3,100.2 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.93% to 4,116.38 points.
Industrial stocks appreciated 1.94%, followed by real estate (1.58%), banks and financial services (1.04%), transport 90.77%), insurance 90.61%), telecom (0.56%) and consumer goods (0.45%).
More than 82% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Aamal Company, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, Masraf Al Rayan, Nakilat and Vodafone Qatar; even as Alijarah Holding and Salam International Investment bucked the trend.
Foreign institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR13.4mn against net sellers of QR52.92mn the previous trading day.
Qatari retail investors’ net buying surged to QR81.44mn compared to QR57.19mn on Thursday.
Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking soared to QR81.61mn against QR14.83mn last Thursday.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the extent of QR13.23mn compared with net buyers of QR10.56mn the previous trading day.
Total trade volume rose 20% to 10.2mn shares, value by 11% to QR417.45mn and transactions by 5% to 5,079.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume grew almost five-fold to 0.77mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR29.17mn on more-than-doubled deals to 376.
The industrials sector’s trade volume surged 82% to 1.84mn equities and value more than doubled to QR163.35mn on a 59% jump in transactions to 1,572.
The telecom sector saw its trade volume soar 71% to 2.21mn shares but value declined 7% to QR36.02mn and deals by 45% to 470.
The banks and financial services reported a 51% expansion in trade volume 2.58mn stocks, even as there was a 23% fall in value to QR96.96mn and 1% in deals to 1,300.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 50% to 0.15mn equities, value by 48% to QR7.11mn and transactions by 45% to 92.
The real estate sector saw its trade volume plunge 37% to 2.22mn shares, value by 14% to QR59.95mn and deals by 7% to 918.
There was a 9% slippage in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.43mn stocks and 34% in value to QR24.89mn but on a 15% rise in transactions to 351.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
