By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
Two days of substantial gains gave way to profit booking in the Qatar Stock Exchange, which fell 52 points to settle below the 12,300 mark, mainly due to industrials, consumer goods and real estate stocks.
Bearish domestic and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions were instrumental in dragging the 20-stock Qatar Index 0.42% to 12,282.17 as trade volumes also shrank.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting slower than the other indices in the bourse, which was down 0.03% year-to-date.
However, local retail investors were bullish in the market, where trading was skewed towards realty, banking and consumer goods stocks, which together accounted for about 72% of the overall volume.
Market capitalisation fell 0.5% or more than QR3bn to QR660.51bn with large cap stocks losing 0.49% and mid and micro (0.19% each); while small caps gained 0.35%.
The Total Return Index was down 0.42% to 19,087.13 points, All Share Index by 0.41% to 3,284.05 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.18% to 4,717.34 points.
Industrials stocks shrank 0.89%, consumer goods (0.87%), real estate (0.68%) and banks and financial services (0.27%); while insurance gained 0.79%, telecom (0.45%) and transport (0.04%).
About 61% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Industries Qatar, Qatar Electricity and Water, Gulf International Services, QNB, Commercial Bank, QIIB, al khaliji, Salam International Investment and Nakilat.
However, Qatar Islamic Bank, Dlala, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Qatari Investors Group, Aamal Company, Ooredoo and Gulf Warehousing were seen bucking the trend.
Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR33.11mn against net buyers of QR30.33mn on May 6.
The GCC institutions were also net sellers to the extent of QR11.91mn compared with net buyers of QR6.02mn on Wednesday.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying sunk to QR4.89mn against QR49.83mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR45.11mn compared with net sellers of QR74.6mn on May 6.
Non-Qatari individual investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.28mn against net sellers of QR0.32mn on Wednesday.
The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR5.22mn compared to QR8.38mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 31% to 11.08mn shares, value by 39% to QR461.73mn and transactions by 11% to 6,384.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 44% to 0.15mn equities, value by 8% to QR10.13mn and deals by 26% to 123.
The banks and financial services sector reported 43% plunge in trade volume to 2.14mn stocks, 48% in value to QR139.88mn and 10% in transactions to 2,136.
The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 37% to 1.31mn shares, value by 43% to QR97.38mn and deals by 12% to 1,315.
There was 37% decline in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 1.65mn equities and 18% in value to QR43.92mn but on 1% rise in transactions to 888.
The transport sector saw its trade volume shrink 29% to 0.37mn stocks, value by 24% to QR14.84mn and deals by 33% to 193.
The telecom sector’s trade volume sunk 28% to 1.32mn shares, value by 36% to QR25.26mn and transactions by 32% to 400.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was down 19% to 4.14mn equities, value by 34% to QR130.32mn and deals by 6% to 1,329.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
