Increased net selling by local retail investors and Gulf institutions as well as strong net profit booking by domestic institutions rather limited the increase in the 20-stock Qatar Index to mere 0.02% to 10,938.8 points.
Transport, consumer goods and industrials counters witnessed higher than average demand in the market, whose year-to-date gains marginally improved to 4.81%.
Islamic stocks were seen outperforming the main index as well as the other indices in the bourse, where Gulf individual investors were seen net sellers.
Trade turnover and volumes expanded considerably in the market, where banking, industrials, telecom and realty sectors together accounted for more than 80% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation was however down more than QR1bn or 0.18% to QR588.59bn as micro and large cap equities fell 0.92% and 0.16% respectively; while small and midcaps were up 0.07% each.
The Total Return Index was up 0.07% to 17,841.29 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.47% to 4,200.68 points, while All Share Index was down 0.03% to 3,023.68 points.
The transport sector saw its index expand 0.42%, consumer goods and industrials (0.39% each) and real estate (0.09%); whereas telecom declined 1.92%, insurance (0.71%) and banks and financial services (0.03%).
Major gainers included Qatar Islamic Bank, QIIB, Alijarah Holding, Nakilat, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Vodafone Qatar, Ezdan, Qatari Investors Group, Doha Bank and Islamic Holding Group.
Nevertheless, QNB, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Commercial Bank, al khaliji, Masraf Al Rayan, Salam International Investment and Widam Food were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR104.49mn compared to QR17.36mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying also strengthened considerably to QR57.51mn against QR2.34mn on Sunday.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR62.42mn compared with net buyers of QR6.83mn on February 26.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking rose perceptibly to QR59.28mn against QR26.68mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling shot up to QR38.16mn compared to QR0.6mn on Sunday.
The GCC retail investors turned net profit takers to the extent of QR2.13mn against net buyers of QR0.75mn on February 26.
Total trade volume more than doubled to 15.3mn shares and value almost doubled to QR591.65mn on 61% increase in deals to 5,323.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than seven-fold to 2.08mn equities and value more than quadrupled to QR100.02mn but on 31% fall in transactions to 140.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 3.33mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR120.09mn on more than doubled deals to 1,706.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 0.44 shares and value soared 71% to QR14.77mn on more than doubled transactions to 286.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 4.73mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR231.57mn on 78% jump in deals to 1,641.
There was 72% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 2.11mn stocks to more than double value to QR39.06mn on 12% rise in transactions to 163.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume expanded 42% to 0.84mm shares, while value shrank 25% to QR35.14mn and deals by 2% to 620.
However, the real estate reported 17% decline in trade volume to 1.77mn equities and 19% in value to QR51mn but on 14% higher transactions to 767.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
