By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Qatar's stock market was by and large “cautious” of the Greece referendum, which saw more than 61% of the voters say ‘No’ to the austerity measures imposed upon Athens by International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank.

Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday fell only 41 points to settle below the 12,000 mark as investors appear to have already discounted in the apprehensions regarding the Greek crisis.

Domestic institutions and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) retail investors were largely instrumental in dragging the 20-stock Qatar Index 0.34% to 11,966.7 points amid increased trade volumes.

“Markets are resilient enough because of the inherent opportunities and prospects in the domestic economy,” an analyst with a leading brokerage firm said.

More than the Greece it was the domestic factors that have led to a weak run in the market and it is not unusual during the lean period, he said, adding given the summer holidays and that much of the trading have been on the fringes, one cannot deduce a trend overall in the market.

“The strong fundamentals are proof positive on encouraging returns for investors but will depend on a long term horizon,” he said, referring to the double-digit expansion in the country’s non-hydrocarbon segment, which forms the bedrock of private sector.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting faster than the other indices in the market, which is down 2.6% year-to-date.

Large cap equities bore the maximum brunt in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate, banking and transport sectors, whose stocks together constituted about 69% of the overall trading volume.

Market capitalisation shed 0.27% or about QR2bn to QR637.4bn with large and small cap equities losing 0.38% and 0.2%; while mid and micro caps gained 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.

The Total Return Index fell 0.34% to 18,600.52 points, All Share Index by 0.21% to 3,203.95 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.47% to 4,649.78 points.

Industrials stocks shrank 1.05%, telecom (0.57%), transport (0.3%) and realty (0.25%); whereas insurance gained 0.98%, banks and financial services (0.14%) and consumer goods (0.12%).

About 61% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Aamal Company, Ezdan, Barwa, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat, Masraf Al Rayan and al khaliji; even as QNB and Qatar Insurance Company were seen bucking the trend.

Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR22.46mn against net buyers of QR0.21mn on Sunday.

The GCC retail investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR2.27mn compared with net buyers of QR0.41mn on July 5.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking strengthened to QR15.77mn against QR11.04mn the previous day.

However, local retail investors’ net buying surged to QR33.48mn compared to QR6.88mn on Sunday.

The GCC institutions’ net buying also increased to QR4.81mn against QR1.8mn on July 5.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying rose to QR2.24mn compared to QR1.73mn the previous day.

Total trade volume rose 66% to 4.32mn shares, value by 80% to QR176.02mn and deals by 28% to 2,194.

The transport sector’s trade volume grew eight-fold to 0.64mn equities and value by more than seven-fold to QR14.36mn on 25% jump in transactions to 79.

The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.43mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR31.22mn on 55% expansion in deals to 578.

The insurance sector’s trade volume doubled to 0.02mn shares and value more than quadrupled to QR1.7mn on almost doubled transactions to 25.

The real estate sector saw 59% surge in trade volume to 1.49mn equities, 54% in value to QR49.67mn and 81% in deals to 481.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume soared 52% to 0.41mn stocks, value by 88% to QR16.03mn and transactions by 46% to 257.

The market witnessed 23% expansion in trade volume to QR0.48mn shares, while there was 1% fall in value to QR11.75mn and 18% in deals to 316.

The banks and financial services sector reported 16% increase in trade volume to 0.85mn equities, 56% in value to QR51.3mn and 6% in transactions to 458.

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

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