Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday witnessed lower trading activities and losers outnumbered gainers but overall it defied two days of bearish spell to once again surpass 10,100 levels.

Local and non-Qatari retail investors’ bullish outlook rather drove the 20-stock Qatar Index up 0.46% to 10,110.45 points.

The strong gains in the first 15 minutes drove the index to a high of near 10,120 points after which it was gripped by profit booking for the next 60 minutes, which led the index to touch a low of less than 10,050 points. The buying support in the remainder of the session led the index settle 46 points higher against the previous close.

Buying was largely skewed towards real estate segment in the bourse, whose year-to-date losses were contained at 3.13%.

Islamic stocks were seen underperforming the main index as well as other indices in the market, where Gulf individuals’ net buying marginally strengthened.

However, foreign institutions turned bearish and there was substantial weakening of buying support from domestic institutions.

Trade turnover and volumes declined in the bourse, where telecom, realty and banking sectors together accounted for more than 82% of the total volumes.

Market capitalisation was however down QR90mn or 0.17% to QR541.47bn as large, small and midcap stocks fell 0.58%, 0.16% and 0.04% respectively; while microcaps were up 0.02%.

The Total Return Index gained 0.46% to 16,954.62 points, All Share Index by 0.2% to 2,871.38 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.34% to 4,047.11 points.

The real estate sector’s index shot up 4.15%, consumer goods (0.4%) and telecom (0.15%), while banks and financial services fell 0.88%, industrials (0.55%), insurance (0.26%) and transport (0.26%).

Major gainers included Ezdan, Barwa, Alijarah Holding, Islamic Holding Group, Dlala, Medicare Group, Woqod, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Aamal Company, Al Khaleej Takaful, Vodafone Qatar and Ooredoo.

Nevertheless, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Industries Qatar, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Doha Insurance, Mazaya Qatar and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.

Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR15.07mn compared with net sellers of QR49.55mn on April 30.

Non-Qatari retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR6.91mn against net sellers of QR3.38mn the previous day.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors’ net buying rose to QR0.63mn compared to QR0.45mn on Sunday.

However, non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR20.43mn against net buyers of QR2.33mn on April 30.

Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened considerably to QR2.32mn compared to QR53.31mn the previous day.

The GCC funds’ net profit booking increased perceptibly to QR4.49mn against QR3.18mn on Sunday.

Total trade volumes fell 28% to 8.41mn shares and value by 7% to QR208.67mn, while deals grew 20% to 2,849.

The banks and financial services sector saw 45% plunge in trade volume to 1.77mn equities and 37% in value to QR61.18mn but on 1% jump in transactions to 811.

The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 42% to 2.61mn stocks and value by 36% to QR27.85mn, whereas deals gained 32% to 231.

The market witnessed 20% shrinkage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.68mn shares but on 72% increase in value to QR40.02mn and 13% in transactions to 646.

The real estate sector’s trade volume was down 9% to 2.53mn equities, while value rose 4% to QR42.77mn and deals by 80% to 618.

However, the insurance sector’s trade volume almost quadrupled to 0.15mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR7.77mn on more than tripled transactions to 94.

The transport sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 0.29mn shares and value grew more than five-fold to QR12.77mn on almost doubled deals to 179.

The consumer goods sector reported 46% surge in trade volume to 0.38mm equities and 8% in value to QR16.32mn but on 27% fall in transactions to 270.

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

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