By Santhosh V. Perumal

Business Reporter

Qatar Stock Exchange on Sunday witnessed losers outnumber gainers but still its main index almost treaded a flat course.

Stronger selling pressure was however seen in the consumer goods, industrials, banking and telecom sectors as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled at 12,443.42 points amid marginal decline in trade volumes.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting faster than the other indices in the bourse, which, however, reported 1.28% gains year-to-date.

Domestic institutions and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) individual investors were increasingly bearish and non-Qatari retail investors turned net sellers; while foreign institutions’ buying interests weakened considerably in the market, where trading was largely skewed towards realty and banking sectors, whose stocks together accounted for more than three-fourth of the overall volume.

Market capitalisation fell 0.19% or more than QR1bn to QR660.68bn with small, mid and large cap equities losing 0.94%, 0.42% and 0.3% respectively, while micro caps were up 0.06%.

The Total Return Index was almost flat at 19,337.72 points, while All Share Index fell 0.13% to 3,313.24 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.37% to 4,734.85 points.

Consumer goods and services stocks shrank 1.14%, industrials (0.6%), banks and financial services (0.38%), telecom (0.26%), transport (0.19%) and insurance (0.13%); while real estate gained 1.45%.

Major losers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar, Commercial Bank, al khaliji and Widam Food.

However, Ezdan, Gulf International Services, Qatar Islamic Bank, Islamic Holding Group, Dlala, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and United Development Company bucked the trend.

Domestic institutions’ net selling soared to QR46.1mn compared to QR17.63mn the previous trading day.

The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking rose to QR3.65mn against QR1.87mn last Thursday.

Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR7.82mn compared with net buyers of QR1.81mn on May 21.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened to QR22.25mn against QR80.09mn the previous day.

However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR18.28mn compared with net sellers of QR56.34mn last Thursday.

The GCC institutions were also net buyers to the tune of QR0.4mn against net sellers of QR6.06mn on May 21.

Total trade volume was down 2% to 13.56mn shares, value by 22% to QR439.49mn and deals by 10% to 5,536.

The market witnessed 57% plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.15mn equities, 60% in value to QR13.51mn and 52% in transactions to 127.

The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 50% to 0.76mn stocks, value by 69% to QR40.63mn and deals by 38% to 929.

There was 36% decline in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.47mn shares, 35% in value to QR9.77mn and 23% in transactions to 239.

The real estate sector’s trade volume shrank 23% to 5.71mn equities, value by 29% to QR144.95mn and deals by 12% to 2,112.

However, the transport sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 0.28mn stocks and value more than quadrupled to QR11.17mn on more than doubled transactions to 158.

The banks and financial services sector reported 72% surge in trade volume to 4.47mn shares, 5% in value to QR163.32mn and 32% in deals to 1,777.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume soared 44% to 1.71mn stocks more than doubling value to QR56.15mn on 55% expansion in transactions to 831.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

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