Qatar Stock Exchange overcame the initial strong selling pressure to finally settle in the positive trajectory, mainly on sustained buying interests of foreign funds.
Stronger demand especially in insurance and realty counters however translated as mere 0.06% increase in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 8,211.94 points. The bourse has been on an upswing for the fifth straight session.
"The market approached the strong support level at 7,500 points before seeing some gains and eyes now have shifted towards the horizontal line at 8,200 points, which if broken would anticipate further upward correction to 8,375 points and may be more to 8,660 points," Kamco said in its technical analysis.
The bullish outlook of Gulf individuals and the weakened net selling by domestic institutions also helped sustain the bullish momentum in the market, whose year-to-date losses were contained at 21.32%.
Islamic equities were seen declining vis-à-vis gains in other indices in the bourse, whose capitalisation gained 0.39% to QR453.42bn.
Trade turnover shot up amidst lower volumes in the market, where real estate, banking and industrials sectors together accounted for about 70% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index was up 0.06% to 13,770.93 points, All Share Index by 0.48% to 2,354.19 points, while Al Rayan Islamic Index fell 0.16% to 3,232.59 points.
The insurance index shot up 2.9%, realty (1.5%) and banks and financial services (0.45%); whereas transport declined 0.85%, industrials (0.29%), telecom (0.24%) and consumer goods (0.2%).
Major gainers included Qatar Insurance, Al Khaleej Takaful, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, QNB, Qatar Oman Investment, Gulf International Services, Qatar National Cement, Ezdan and United Development Company.
Nevertheless, Masraf Al Rayan, Widam Food, Qatar Electricity and Water, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat and Milaha were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased influentially to QR28.67mn compared to QR21.63mn on December 13.
The Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.2mn against net sellers of QR0.23mn the previous day.
Domestic funds’ net profit booking declined perceptibly to QR19.56mn compared to QR28.58mn on Wednesday.
However, local retail investors’ net selling strengthened substantially to QR8.95mn against QR2.12mn on December 13.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ net selling also increased to QR7.01mn compared to QR0.86mn the previous day.
The Gulf institutions’ net buying declined significantly to QR6.6mn against QR10.2mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume fell 25% to 15.33mn shares, while value rose 22% to QR405mn despite 4% lower deals to 5,014.
The telecom sector reported 62% plunge in trade volume to 1.78mn equities but on 6% jump in value to QR43.94mn and 41% in transactions to 703.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume plummeted 42% to 3.27mn stocks, while value gained 22% to QR152.06mn despite 19% decline in deals to 1,260.
There was 12% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 4.38mn shares but on 5% increase in value to QR62.85mn despite 11% decline in transactions to 1,019.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.04mn equities, while value shrank 27% to QR12.94mn and deals by 26% to 306.
The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 16% to 0.67mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR23.17mn on 54% growth in transactions to 258.
There was 3% expansion in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 3.02mn shares, 51% in value to QR80.81mn and 3% in deals to 1,114.
The transport sector’s trade volume was up 1% to 1.17mn equities, value by 15% to QR29.23mn and transactions by 1% to 354.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
