The Qatar Stock Exchange continued to remain under bearish spell for the fourth straight session to settle a tad above 8,300 levels, as non-Qatari and Gulf institutions turned profit takers.
Strong selling pressure, especially in industrials, led the 20-stock Qatar Index to shed 0.75% to 8,308.34 points. The country’s first exchange traded fund QETF was down 0.24%.
However, there was increased net buying support from local, Gulf and non-Qatari individuals on the market, which is down 2.52% year-to-date.
Islamic stocks were seen declining slower than the main index on the bourse, which saw substantially weakened net selling by domestic funds.
Some of the mid and small cap equities witnessed faster selling on the market, whose capitalisation shrank 0.69% to QR444.93bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where telecom and banking sectors together accounted for more than 71% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.39% to 14,472.51 points, All Share Index by 0.37% to 2,380.32 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.54% to 3,486.75 points.
The industrials index shrank 1.24%, consumer goods 90.49%), transport (0.3%), banks and financial services (0.28%) and telecom (0.06%); whereas insurance and realty gained 0.3% and 0.25% respectively.
About 61% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Doha Bank, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Electricity and Water, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, QNB, Commercial Bank, Qatar First Bank and United Development Company; while Qatar Islamic Bank, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices were among the gainers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR12.59mn against net buyers of QR1.36mn on Wednesday.
The Gulf institutions were also net sellers to the extent of QR5.25mn compared with net buyers of QR1.93mn on March 7.
However, local retail investors’ net buying grew marginally to QR15.75mn against QR15.34mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net buying increased considerably to QR7.08mn compared to QR1.93mn on Wednesday.
The Gulf individuals’ net buying also grew perceptibly to QR1.6mn against QR0.47mn on March 7.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking fell substantially to QR6.62mn compared to QR21mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 29% to 7.66mn shares, value by 31% to QR135.7mn and transactions by 24% to 2,904.
The transport sector reported 55% plunge in trade volume to 0.34mn equities, 47% in value to QR12.01mn and 3% in deals to 329.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume plummeted 45% to 2.66mn stocks, value by 30% to QR49.78mn and transactions by 25% to 951.
The market witnessed 44% shrinkage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.83mn shares, 46% in value to QR21.06mn and 21% in deals to 500.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 43% to 0.68mn equities, value by 45% to QR10.4mn and transactions by 50% to 300.
The insurance sector’s trade volume declined 26% to 0.17mn stocks, value by 27% to QR6.02mn and deals by 58% to 109.
However, there was 36% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 2.81mn shares and 15% in value to QR23.46mn but on 5% fall in transactions to 491.
Although the consumer goods sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.17mn equities, value shrank 20% to QR12.95mn and deals by 3% to 224.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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