The Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday treaded a flat path despite bullish outlook of local retail investors and considerable weakening of domestic funds’ net selling.
Strong selling in consumer goods, transport and realty counters notwithstanding, the 20-stock Qatar Index stood at 8,110.16 points, showing a mere 0.09% fall.
Islamic equities fell faster than the other indices on the bourse, whose year-to-date losses were at 22.29%.
However, Gulf institutions turned bearish and there was lower net buying by their non-Qatari counterparts in the market, whose capitalisation eroded 0.36% to QR441.64bn.
The market was on a faster declining mode in the first 60 minutes to take the index to a low of near 8,080 points, after which there was a sustained net buying, albeit at lower levels. Thus, overall the barometer settled seven points lower.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where industrials and banking sectors together accounted for more than 67% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.09% to 13,600.25 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.84% to 3,195.76 points and All Share Index by 0.48% to 2,274.28 points.
The banks and financial services index was up 0.14%, while consumer goods shrank 1.74%, transport (1.68%), realty (1.24%), insurance (0.8%), industrials (0.53%) and telecom (0.26%).
Major gainers included Doha Bank, Ahli Bank, Qatari Investors Group and Gulf International Services; whereas al khaliji, Islamic Holding Group, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Salam International Investment, Qatar National Cement, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat were among the losers.
Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR11.46mn compared with net sellers of QR11.23mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking weakened substantially to QR21.1mn against QR54.71mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling declined perceptibly to QR0.56mn compared to QR2.37mn on October 23.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying shrank considerably to QR12.21mn against QR27.49mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds turned net sellers to extent of QR2.4mn compared with net buyers of QR40.27mn on Monday.
The GCC retail investors’ net buying fell marginally to QR0.38mn against QR0.53mn on October 23.
Total trade volume fell 37% to 5.1mn shares, value by 16% to QR139.72mn and deals by 16% to 1,855.
There was 72% plunge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 0.61mn equities, 48% in value to QR13.27mn and 52% in transactions to 228.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume plummeted 50% to 1.64mn stocks and value by 18% to QR64.16mn, while deals were up 1% to 789.
The transport sector reported 50% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.17mn stocks, 65% in value to QR3.06mn and 48% in transactions to 89.
The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 29% to 0.39mn shares, value by 44% to QR7.82mn and deals by 35% to 138.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 0.09mn equities and value also more than quadrupled to QR5.91mn on more than doubled transactions to 105.
The market witnessed 67% surge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.4mn shares and 65% in value to QR18.51mn but on 31% decline in deals to 85.
The industrials sector’s trade volume shot up 22% to 1.8mn equities, value by 4% to QR26.99mn and transactions by 8% to 421.
In the debt market, there was no trading of government bonds and treasury bills.
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