By Santhosh V. Perumal
Business Reporter
The Qatar Stock Exchange on Sunday opened the week with a minor correction to lose 10 points; but overall the bourse remained above the 12,000 level.
Both domestic and foreign institutions were seen less inclined towards buying as the 20-stock Qatar Index fell 0.08% to 12,040.06 points with trade volumes also on the decline.
Mid and large cap stocks witnessed the maximum selling pressure in the bourse, which is down 2% year-to-date.
However, the index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining in the market, where overall trading was skewed towards realty, consumer goods and banks stocks, which together accounted for more than 80% of the overall volume.
Market capitalisation was down 0.11%, or QR72mn, to QR646.21bn with mid, large and small cap stocks losing 0.32%, 0.21% and 0.17% respectively, even as micro caps rose 0.39%.
The Total Return Index fell 0.08% to 18,710.88 points and the All Share Index by 0.11% to 3,215.84 points, but the Al Rayan Islamic Index rose 0.23% to 4,571.69 points.
Insurance stocks declined 0.67%, followed by banks and financial services (0.57%), telecom (0.57%) and transport (0.15%); whereas industrials gained 0.5%, real estate (0.33%) and consumer goods (0.2%).
Major losers included QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, QIIB, Masraf Al Rayan, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Gulf International Services, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat.
However, Industries Qatar, Mazaya Qatar, Doha Bank, Ezdan Holding, United Development Company and Barwa were seen bucking the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR4.15mn against net buyers of QR40.75mn the previous trading day.
Domestic institutions’ net buying plunged to QR5.84mn compared to QR26.76mn on Thursday.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR5.43mn against net sellers of QR47.96mn last Thursday.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions’ net selling weakened to QR5.82mn compared to QR17.36mn the pervious trading day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking-fell to QR0.97mn against QR1.19mn on Thursday.
The GCC individual investors’ net selling also shrank to QR0.33mn compared to QR0.99mn.
Total trade volume fell 21% to 6.91mn shares, value by 38% to QR205.69mn and transactions by 26% to 3,502.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 47% plunge in trade volume to 1.09mn equities, 66% in value to QR41.15mn and 53% in deals to 700.
The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 47% to 0.47mn stocks, value by 40% to QR11.83mn and transactions by 42% to 338.
The market witnessed a 46% slippage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.5mn shares, 33% in value to QR41.64mn and 32% in deals to 709.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 33% to 0.02mn equities, value by 48% to QR1.03mn and transactions by 36% to 25.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was down 6% to 3.05mn stocks and value by 23% to QR68.5mn, whereas deals were up 2% to 946.
The consumer goods sector saw its trade volume fall 3% to 1.42mn shares and value by 2% to QR31.94mn, but on flat transactions at 558.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 0.37mn equities and value more than doubled to QR9.59mn on more-than-doubled deals to 226.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
