The transport, consumer goods, industrials and realty counters saw higher demand amidst a 0.46% fall in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 8,895.64 points, a day after Qatar’s Foreign Minister HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani presented the country’s response to the 13-point demands raised by the siege countries.
Local and non-Qatari retail investors turned bullish and there was weakened net selling by Gulf institutions in the market, whose year-to-date losses were at 14.77%.
Small, micro and midcap segments witnessed stronger buying interests in the bourse, where domestic and foreign institutions however turned net sellers.
The market opened on a stronger note with it nearing 9,100 points, after which it was on a slow profit-booking mode for most part of the remaining session. During the last few minutes, the index was treading a flat path to settle overall lower against the previous close.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining vis-à-vis declines in the main as well as other indices in the bourse where capitalisation was lower at QR479.49bn, even as small, micro and midcap scrips gained 0.77%, 0.61% and 0.45% respectively.
Trade turnover fell amidst higher volumes in the bourse, where banking, industrials and transport sectors together accounted for about 72% of the total volumes.
The Total Return Index stood at 14,917.46 points, the All Share Index at 2,534.1 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index at 3,528.5 points.
The transport index soared 5.19%, followed by consumer goods (1.21%), industrials (0.79%) and real estate (0.6%); whereas insurance fell 5.38%, telecom (3.19%) and banks and financial services (0.89%).
Major gainers included Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Gulf International Services, QIIB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Commercial Bank, Woqod, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Qatar Electricity and Water, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices; while QNB, Ooredoo, Qatar Insurance, Qatari Investors Group and Alijarah Holding were among the losers.
Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR60.09mn compared with net sellers of QR49.01mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR11.89mn against net sellers of QR6.69mn on Monday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling fell considerably to QR5.48mn compared to QR16.72mn on July 3.
However, domestic institutions turned net profit-takers to the tune of QR44.02mn against net buyers of QR29.42mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari institutions were also net sellers to the extent of QR13.39mn compared with net buyers of QR49.97mn on Monday.
The GCC individuals’ net profit-booking strengthened perceptibly to QR9.09mn against QR7.01mn on July 3.
Total trade volumes rose 32% to 13.01mn shares, while value fell 1% to QR288.49mn and deals by 2% to 4,294.
The industrials sector’s trade volume jumped about five-fold to 3.52mn equities and value by 85% to QR79.15mn on almost-doubled transactions to 1,216.
The transport sector’s trade volume tripled to 2.1mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR41.14mn but on a 25% decline in deals to 419.
There was a 33% surge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.44mn shares, 20% in value to QR23.84mn and 25% in transactions to 390.
However, the insurance sector’s plummeted 58% to 0.15mn equities, 75% in value to QR6.04mn and 26% in deals to 134.
The real estate sector reported a 29% plunge in trade volume to 1.5mn stocks, 36% in value to QR25.05mn and 34% in transactions to 548.
The telecom sector’s trade volume shrank 5% to 1.62mn shares, value by 25% to QR18.3mn and deals by 20% to 261.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume was down 4% to 3.69mn equities, value by 23% to QR94.97mn and transactions by 15% to 1,326.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
