Reopening after week-long Eid al-Fitr holidays, the Qatar Stock Exchange saw strong buying support from foreign as well as domestic institutions and settled at a little over 8,800 points.

There was lower net selling pressure from Gulf institutions amid a 2.31% fall in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 8,822.15 points ahead of the deadline to meet 13-point demands imposed by the siege countries to end last night.
Amidst an overall bearish overhang, there was buying interests in the transport sector in the market, whose year-to-date losses were at 15.47%.
The market saw steep declines in the first 30 minutes after which there were mild buying interests for the next 15 minutes only to see profit-booking for the major part of the remaining session, taking the index to a low of less than 8,700 points. Some last minute stronger buying drove the index up, but to finally settle lower against the previous close.
Islamic stocks were seen declining faster than the main as well as other indices in the bourse, whose capitalisation stood at QR477.1bn.
Nevertheless, local retail investors turned bearish and there was increased net selling by their Gulf and non-Qatari counterparts in the market.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the rise in the bourse, where banking, realty and telecom sectors together accounted for about 84% of the total volumes.
The Total Return Index stood at 14,794.22 points, the All Share Index at 2,515.44 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index at 3,487.77 points.
The transport index soared 1.78%; while consumer goods fell 3.97%, followed by industrials (3.36%), telecom (3.26%), banks and financial services (2.62%), real estate (2.36%) and insurance (2.03%).
Major gainers included Milaha and Qatar Islamic Insurance; even as Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, al khaliji, Masraf Al Rayan, Mazaya Qatar and Ezdan were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened substantially to QR69.84mn compared to QR30.72mn on June 22.
Domestic institutions’ net buying also increased considerably to QR41.01mn against QR1.44mn the previous trading day.
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds’ net selling fell influentially to QR15.75mn compared to QR30mn last Thursday.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR41.6mn against net buyers of QR17.15mn on June 22.
GCC individuals’ net selling grew significantly to QR27.73mn compared to QR12.78mn the previous trading day.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ net profit-booking rose perceptibly to QR25.73mn against QR6.53mn last Thursday.
Total trade volumes rose 14% to 14.29mn shares and value by 8% to QR391.69mn, while deals fell 5% to 4,126.
There was a 41% surge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 3.72mn equities and 17% in value to QR55.43mn but on a 26% decline in transactions to 580.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume soared 33% to 6.49mn stocks, value by 35% to QR199.27mn and deals by 11% to 1,788.
The transport sector’s trade volume expanded 7% to 0.6mn shares, whereas value shrank 17% to QR13.72mn despite flat transactions at 266.
The consumer goods sector reported a 2% rise in trade volume to 0.49mn equities but on a 40% slump in value to QR26.58mn and 7% in deals to 410.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 29% to 1.73mn stocks, value by 44% to QR19.58mn and transactions by 40% to 297.
The market witnessed a 20% drop in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.93mn shares but on an 8% increase in value to QR57.29mn and less than 1% in deals to 690.
The insurance sector’s trade volume was down 6% to 0.33mn equities; while value grew 9% to QR19.81mn transactions by 19% to 95.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

Related Story