By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
The bullish scenario in the global crude prices and first-quarter corporate earnings apparently lifted the sentiments on the Qatar Stock Exchange, which amassed 152 points to inch near the 12,200 mark on Monday.
Foreign institutions’ buying interests was instrumental in lifting the 20-stock Qatar Index by 1.26% to 12,192.15 points as trade volumes almost tripled.
The slowdown in US shale oil production and the conflict in Yemen have rather lend bullish support to the crude market in recent weeks.
Small and mid cap stocks witnessed the maximum buying interests in the bourse, which is, however, down 0.76% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster in the market, where trading was skewed towards realty, banking and consumer goods stocks, which together accounted for than three-fourth of the overall volume.
Market capitalisation expanded 1.23%, or about QR8bn, to QR654.16bn with small, mid, large and micro cap stocks gaining 1.55%, 1.46%, 1.29% and 0.82% respectively.
The Total Return Index gained 1.26% to 18,947.33 points, the All Share Index by 1.24% to 3,255.85 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.53% to 4,641.72 points.
Realty stocks appreciated 1.59%, followed by consumer goods (1.58%), banks and financial services (1.44%), insurance (1.34%), transport (1.21%) and industrials (0.94%); while telecom was down 0.4%.
More than 80% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being QNB, Barwa, United Development Company, Ezdan, Doha Bank, QIIB, Masraf Al Rayan, Salam International Investment, Qatar Electricity and Water, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Vodafone Qatar, Gulf Warehousing and Nakilat; even as Ooredoo and Dlala bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR78.26mn against net sellers of QR4.15mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net buying rose to QR11.16mn compared to QR5.84mn on April 26.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions’ net selling weakened to QR5.18mn against QR5.82mn on Sunday.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the extent of QR65.58mn compared with net buyers of QR5.43mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit-booking strengthened to QR17.85mn against QR0.97mn on April 26.
The GCC individual investors’ net selling rose to QR0.72mn compared to QR0.33mn on Sunday.
Total trade volume almost tripled to 18.3mn shares and value more than tripled to QR719.92mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 7,620.
The telecom sector’s trade volume almost quadrupled to 1.79mn equities and value also almost quadrupled to QR40.04mn on more-than-doubled deals to 723.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume almost quadrupled to 4.04mn stocks and value grew almost five-fold to QR192.59mn on more-than-tripled transactions to 2,360.
The market witnessed more than tripling of the industrials sector’s trade volume and value to 1.76mn shares and QR137.58mn respectively on an 82% jump in deals to 1,291.
The insurance sector’s trade volume tripled to 0.06mn equities and value more than tripled to QR3.52mn on almost tripled transactions to 69.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.87mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR31.27mn on a 96% surge in deals to 443.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.26mn shares and value almost tripled to QR91mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 1,230.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 6.52mn equities and value more than tripled to QR223.92mn on a 59% jump in deals to 1,504.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
