Qatar Stock Exchange continued to remain bullish for the second straight session and its key index inched near 8,900 levels mainly on the back of strong buying in the industrials, banking and insurance counters.
Foreign institutions were increasingly bullish as the 20-stock Qatar Index shot up another 1.6% to 8,801.75 points. The country’s first exchange traded fund QETF saw 1.77% gains.
Domestic funds’ substantially weakened net selling also helped sustained the bullish momentum in the market, which is up 3.27% year-to-date.
Islamic stocks gained much slower than the main index in the bourse, which however saw local retail investors turn bearish and there was increased net selling by non-Qatari individuals.
Large cap equities witnessed faster gains in the market, whose capitalisation expanded 2.47% or QR12bn to QR480.46bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the bourse, where industrials and banking sectors together accounted for more than 65% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index grew 1.6% to 15,331.99 points, All Share Index by 1.71% to 2,539.55 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.19% to 3,576.57 points.
The industrials index grew 2.88%, banks and financial services (2.8%), insurance (1.8%), consumer goods (1.15%) and telecom (1.07%); whereas realty and transport declined 1.49% and 1.37% respectively.
As much as 55% of the stocks extended gains with other major movers being QNB, Industries Qatar, Zad Holding, Qatar Electricity and Water, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Insurance, Ooredoo, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Doha Bank and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices.
Nevertheless, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Vodafone Qatar, Milaha, Ezdan and Alijarah Holding were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened impressively to QR90.28mn against QR41.32mn on March 12.
Domestic funds’ net profit booking weakened considerably to QR9.42mn compared to QR87.41mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR79.77mn against net buyers of QR36.41mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking increased to QR11.08mn compared to QR5.76mn on March 12.
The Gulf individuals’ net buying declined perceptibly to QR0.42mn against QR3mn the previous day.
The Gulf institutions’ net buying weakened marginally to QR9.63mn compared to QR12.44mn on Monday.
Total trade volume fell 21% to 14.11mn shares, value by 15% to QR520.32mn and transactions by 6% to 5,852.
The transport sector reported 82% plunge in trade volume to 0.52mn equities, 90% in value to QR15.25mn and 44% in deals to 355.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 57% to 1.35mn stocks, value by 24% to QR28.18mn and transactions by 36% to 495.
The insurance sector saw 6% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.34mn shares and 7% in value to QR12.42mn but on 81% increase in deals to 287.
However, the industrials sector’s trade volume expanded 7% to 4.97mn equities, while value fell 8% to QR123.94mn despite flat transactions at 1,224.
There was 6% rise in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 2.31mn stocks but on 6% slump in value to QR37.29mn and 79% in deals to 211.
Although the consumer goods sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.4mn shares, the market witnessed 37% decline in value to QR19.66mn and 11% in transactions to 385.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume was also flat at 4.2mn equities but value shot up 39% to QR283.57mn and deals by 9% to 2,195.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
