Led by the realty, consumer goods and industrials sectors, the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 19 points, or 0.17%, to 10,952.66 despite downturn in the global oil price on strong dollar.
The bullish outlook of Gulf and non-Qatari individuals also helped maintain rally in the market, whose year-to-date gains swelled to 4.94%.
Small, micro and midcap equities witnessed brisk demand in the bourse, where local retail investors, however, turned bearish.
Islamic stocks were seen outperforming the main index as well as the other indices in the market, where there was also increased net selling by domestic institutions.
Trade turnover and volumes expanded in the market, where the real estate, banking and industrials sectors together accounted for about 74% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation expanded more than QR1bn, or 0.25%, to QR589.62bn as small, micro and midcaps gained 0.94%, 0.5% and 0.35% respectively, while large caps fell 0.28%.
The Total Return Index rose 0.45% to 17,848.26 points, the All Share Index by 0.48% to 3,026.22 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1% to 4,187.38 points.
The realty sector saw its index vault 1.78%, followed by consumer goods (1.42%) and industrials (0.82%); while telecom declined 0.4%, transport 0.34% and banks and financial services fell 0.04%. The index of insurance closed flat.
More than 56% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Ezdan, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Islamic Holding Group, Dlala, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and Medicare Group.
Nevertheless, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat, Alijarah Holding and Al Khaleej Takaful were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR100.51mn compared to QR44.73mn the previous day.
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR10.34mn against net sellers of QR7.85mn on Tuesday.
The GCC retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR4.26mn compared with net sellers of QR6.54mn on February 21.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR3.68mn against net sellers of QR4.12mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR87.62mn compared with net sellers of QR22.8mn on Tuesday.
Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking strengthened considerably to QR31.17mn against QR3.37mn on February 21.
Total trade volume rose 31% to 13.81mn shares, value by 24% to QR490.05mn and deals by 20% to 6,214.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.2mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR98.9mn on a 61% jump in transactions to 1,260.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 72% surge in trade volume to 2.81mn stocks and 97% in value to QR130.17mn on more-than-doubled deals to 1,955.
The real estate’s trade volume soared 67% to 5.17mn shares, value by 59% to QR111.78mn and transactions by 23% to 1,125.
The market witnessed a 6% expansion in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 1.03mm equities but on a 21% fall in value to QR70.93mn. Deals were up less than 1% to 969.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 48% to 0.84 stocks, value by 48% to QR23.47mn and transactions by 37% to 377.
The telecom sector reported a 28% plunge in trade volume to 1.18mn shares, 30% in value to QR23.94mn and 26% in deals to 311.
The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 23% to 0.58mn equities, value by 40% to QR30.87mn and transactions by 59% to 217.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
