The Qatar Stock Exchange recorded substantial jump in trade turnover and volumes as it leaped 97 points to inch near 8,900 levels.

Strong buying– especially at the telecom, banking, real estate and transport counters – helped the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 1.11% to 8,847.79 points. The country’s first exchange traded fund QETF saw 1.66% gains.

Non-Qatari and Gulf institutions extended stronger buying support to the market, which is up 3.81% year-to-date.

Islamic stocks gained slower than the main index in the bourse, which, however, saw local retail investors turn bullish and increased net selling by domestic funds.

Large-cap equities witnessed stronger demand in the market, whose capitalisation expanded 1.13% to QR480.68bn.

Trade turnover doubled on higher volumes in the bourse, where the insurance, banking and industrials sectors together accounted for about 69% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index gained 1.11% to 15,412.18 points, the All Share Index by 1.02% to 2,539.25 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.83% to 3,601.29 points.

The telecom index soared 2.3%, followed by banks and financial services (1.7%), realty (1.37%), transport (1.25%) and industrials (0.12%); while insurance and consumer goods declined 2.28% and 0.06% respectively.

About 55% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Ooredoo, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar Electricity and Water, Aamal Company, United Development Company, Barwa, Milaha and Gulf Warehousing.

Nevertheless, Qatar Insurance, Ahli Bank, Doha Bank, Commercial Bank, Salam International Investment, Industries Qatar and Qatari Investors Group were among the losers.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying grew substantially to QR103.32mn compared to QR86.51mn the previous day.

Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR74.15mn against net sellers of QR15.98mn on Wednesday.

However, domestic funds’ net selling strengthened considerably to QR139.4mn compared to QR71.1mn on March 14.

Local retail investors turned net sellers to the extent of QR26.46mn against net buyers of QR8.65mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit-booking increased perceptibly to QR8.26mn compared to QR6.95mn on Wednesday.

Gulf individuals’ net profit-booking grew influentially to QR3.24mn against QR1.08mn on March 14.

Total trade volume almost doubled to 34.48mn shares and value more than doubled to QR1.05bn on a 49% increase in transactions to 8,821.

The insurance sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 10.8mn equities and value also more than tripled to QR367.26mn on a 56% jump in deals to 1,537.

The real estate sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 5.58mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR107.15mn but on a 2% fall in transactions to 1,029.

The telecom sector reported an 87% surge in trade volume to 1.53mn shares and value more than doubled to QR31.18mn on a 62% growth in deals to 550.

The industrials sector’s trade volume shot up 81% to 6.12mn equities and value by 79% to QR141.24mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 1,776.

The transport sector saw a 73% increase in trade volume to 3.33mn stocks but on almost-tripled-value to QR136.07mn and more-than-doubled deals to 1,183.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume expanded 28% to 0.32mn shares and value by 19% to QR23.26mn, while transactions were down 5% to 340.

There was a 22% increase in the banks and financial services sector’s trade volume to 6.81mn equities, 52% in value to QR239.61mn and 27% in deals to 2,406.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.

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