By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
Qatar Stock Exchange snapped four days of bearish spell to gain 99 points on Monday, mainly on the back of strong buying, especially in the insurance, telecom and real estate stocks.
Higher net buying from foreign institutions and lower net selling from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-Qatari retail investors led the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.85% to 11,750.29 points on expanded overall trade volumes.
Six of the seven sectors extended buying support in the market, which is, however, down 4.36% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining the slowest in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the banking and realty sectors, whose stocks together constituted about 67% of the overall trading volume.
Market capitalisation shot up 0.81% or more than QR5bn to QR624.56bn with mid and large cap equities gaining 1.21% and 0.56%; even as small and micro caps fell 0.46% and 0.45% respectively.
The Total Return Index rose 0.85% to 18,264.13 points, All Share Index by 0.71% to 3,144.37 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.03% to 4,536.44 points.
Insurance stocks appreciated 3.65%, telecom (2.5%), real estate (1.19%), banks and financial services (0.52%), industrials (0.13%) and transport (0.01%); whereas consumer goods fell 0.71%.
Major gainers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Qatar Insurance, Ezdan, Barwa, Doha Bank, Aamal Company, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing and Nakilat; while Commercial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Mazaya Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, Widam Food and Islamic Holding Group bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR19.02mn compared to QR6.13mn the previous day.
The GCC institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.14mn against net sellers of QR2.93mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR2.97mn compared to QR4.23mn on August 2.
The GCC individual investors’ net selling notably declined to QR0.57mn against QR10.23mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR10.52mn compared with net sellers of QR5.53mn on Sunday.
Domestic institutions were also seen net profit takers to the extent of QR5.1mn against net buyers of QR5.75mn on August 2.
Total trade volume rose 11% to 4.71mn shares, value by 31% to QR239.55mn and deals by 13% to 4,061.
The insurance sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 0.29mn equities and value grew more than six-fold to QR24.87mn on more than tripled transactions to 327.
The banks and financial services sector reported 47% surge in trade volume to 1.93mn stocks, 56% in value to QR104.13mn and 50% in deals to 1,374.
The industrials sector’s trade volume expanded 8% to 0.55mn shares, value by 89% to QR49.01mn and transactions by 46% to 1,084.
The real estate sector saw 3% increase in trade volume to 1.21mn equities but there was 7% fall in value to QR35.87mn and 10% in deals to 605.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 62% to 0.15mn stocks, value by 60% to QR11.05mn and transactions by 57% to 309.
The market witnessed 40% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.09mn shares, 51% in value to QR3.71mn and 45% in deals to 84.
The telecom sector’s trade volume shrank 25% to QR0.49mn equities, value by 14% to QR10.91mn and transactions by 9% to 278.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
