Stronger buying support from foreign and Gulf institutions on Monday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange, which saw three-fourth of the traded constituents extent gains, thus helping it inch near 9,600 levels.

An across-the-board buying, notably in telecom, real estate and some of the banking equities, led the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.84% to 9,579.16 points.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ strengthened buying also helped sustain the bullish momentum in the market, whose year-to-date losses were contained at 8.22%.
Islamic stocks were seen outperforming the main index and other indices on the bourse, which however saw domestic institutions turn bearish and increased net selling pressure from local and Gulf retail investors.
The market shot up to near 9,560 points within in the first 15 minutes of trading, after which it witnessed selling to drive it down to 9,540 points but only to be followed by buying support for the next 15 minutes. Mild profit booking ensued for the next 15 minutes taking the index below 9,540 points. Thereafter, strong buying lifted the index to a high of 9,580 points but only to witness slow selling for next 90 minutes. Some last minute buying interests finally settled the index 79 points higher.
Market capitalisation gained 0.8% or more than QR4bn to QR518.55bn as large, mid, micro and small cap scrips gained 0.88%, 0.86%, 0.38% and 0.3% respectively.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase on the bourse, where telecom and banking sectors together accounted for about 67% of the total volumes.
The Total Return Index gained 0.84% to 16,063.68 points, All Share Index by 0.87% to 2,726.61 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.13% to 3,810.2 points.
The telecom index surged 2.49%, realty (1.71%), insurance (0.78%), banks and financial services declined (0.76%), consumer goods (0.75%), industrials (0.3%) and transport (0.22%).
Major gainers included Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Ezdan, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Qatar Oman Investment, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Electricity and Water, Barwa, Salam International Investment, Widam and Al Meera; even as Qatar National Cement, Gulf International Services and Nakilat were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened influentially to QR15.09mn compared to QR7.4mn on July 23.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds were net buyers to the tune of QR9.33mn against net sellers of QR0.53mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ net buying increased perceptibly to QR3.82mn compared to QR0.86mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors’ net selling increased considerably to QR15.21mn against QR8.45mn on July 23.
The GCC individuals’ net profit booking also shot up to QR10.16mn compared to QR1.34mn on Sunday.
Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR2.89mn against net buyers of QR2.08mn the previous day.
Total trade volumes rose 36% to 9.95mn shares, value by 19% to QR231.51mn and deals by 27% to 3,393.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than 84-fold 0.12mn equities and value by about 61-fold to QR5.45mn on 21-fold increase in transactions to 63.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 4.89mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR51.65mn on more than doubled deals to 501.
The transport sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 1.25mn shares, value soared 66% to QR26.63mn and transactions by 23% to 469.
The banks and financial services sector saw 32% surge in trade volume to 1.77mn equities, 83% in value to QR78.93mn and 57% in deals to 1,051.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was up 4% to 1.05mn stocks and value by 20% to QR17.14mn on more than doubled transactions to 437.
However, there was 78% plunge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.6mn shares, 62% in value to QR27.74mn and 40% in deals to 529.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume declined 24% to 0.26mn equities and value by 18% to QR23.97mn, whereas transactions grew 7% to 343.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

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