By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
Qatar Stock Exchange continued to be under bearish spell for the third straight session on Tuesday as its key index lost another 31 points, mainly dragged by industrials, real estate and insurance stocks.
Local retail investors sought to book profits as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.26% to 11,936.13 points.
However, strong buying support was seen from domestic institutions in the market, which is down 2.85% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting faster than the other indices in the market, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate, banking and telecom sectors, whose stocks together constituted more than 70% of the overall trading volume.
Market capitalisation shed 0.36% or more than QR2bn to QR635.11bn with
small, micro and large cap equities losing 0.34%, 0.22% and 0.2% respectively; even as mid caps were unchanged.
The Total Return Index fell 0.26% to 18,553.01 points, All Share Index by 0.26% to 3,195.61 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.47% to 4,627.71 points.
Industrials stocks shrank 0.94%, realty (0.37%), insurance (0.3%) and consumer goods (0.24%); while telecom gained 0.54% and banks and financial services (0.08%). The index of transport was unchanged.
Major losers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, United Development Company and Vodafone Qatar; even as Ooredoo, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank and Dlala were seen bucking the trend.
Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR5.32mn against net buyers of QR33.48mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking strengthened to QR18.41mn compared to QR15.77mn on July 6.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the extent of QR1.39mn against net buyers of QR2.24mn the previous day.
However, domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR35.6mn compared with net sellers of QR22.46mn on Monday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net buying also increased to QR8.7mn against QR4.81mn on July 6.
The GCC retail investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR1.81mn compared to QR2.27mn the previous day.
Total trade volume was down 3% to 4.19mn shares, while value rose 25% to QR220.7mn and deals by 17% to 2,571.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than seven-fold to 0.15mn equities and value by more than eight-fold to QR14.28mn on 60% jump in transactions to 40.
The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 37% to 0.59mn stocks, value by 43% to QR44.53mn and deals by 16% to 668.
The banks and financial services sector reported 36% increase in trade volume to 1.16mn shares, 70% in value to QR87.08mn and 30% in transactions to 595.
The telecom sector’s trade volume expanded 29% to QR0.62mn equities, value by 45% to QR17.09mn and deals by 59% to 501.
However, the transport sector saw 77% plunge in trade volume to 0.15mn stocks, 75% in value to QR3.54mn and 20% in transactions to 63.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 21% to 1.17mn shares, value by 31% to QR34.28mn and deals by 31% to 334.
The market witnessed 15% shrinkage in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.35mn equities, even as there was 24% rise in value to QR19.89mn and 44% in transactions to 370.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
