Snapping two days of bullish run, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed profit booking pressures that dragged its key index below 8,900 levels.
Telecom and industrials counters witnessed higher selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 1.16% to 8,873.78 points. The country’s first exchange traded fund QETF saw 0.4% decline.
The Gulf institutions turned bearish and there was also substantially weakened net buying interests of their domestic counterparts in the market, which is however up 4.11% year-to-date.
Large and midcap stocks saw faster declines in the bourse, thus leading the capitalisation erode 0.96% to QR487.44bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the market, where industrials, banking, telecom and real estate sectors together accounted for more than 84% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index declined 0.86% to 15,530.35 points, All Share Index by 0.44% to 2,294.1 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.18% to 3,662.23 points.
The telecom index shrank 2.2%, industrials (1.01%), realty (0.81%), banks and financial services (0.67%) and transport (0.16%); whereas insurance and consumer goods gained 1.11% and 0.01% respectively.
More than 53% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Ooredoo, Nakilat, Barwa, QNB, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar Electricity and Water, Qatar National Cement, Industries Qatar, Doha Bank, Medicare Group and Alijarah Holding; while Qatar First Bank, Ahli Bank, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Doha Insurance, Mazaya Qatar and Vodafone Qatar were among the gainers.
The Gulf institutions turned net profit takers to the tune of QR4.32mn compared with net buyers of QR6.76mn on Tuesday.
Domestic funds’ net buying declined substantially to QR17.77mn compared to QR46.25mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors’ net selling weakened considerably to QR5.82mn against QR26.87mn on March 20.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking declined influentially to QR0.29mn compared to QR12.06mn on Tuesday.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking fell marginally to QR7.5mn against QR7.85mn the previous day.
The Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the extent of QR0.18mn compared with net sellers of QR6.24mn on March 20.
Total trade volume fell 61% to 9.38mn shares, value by 58% to QR220.47mn and transactions by 42% to 4,227.
The banks and financial services sector saw 71% plunge in trade volume to 1.87mn equities, 70% in value to QR66.65mn and 54% in deals to 1,067.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 67% to 0.32mn stocks, value by 65% to QR12.18mn and transactions by 46% to 309.
The market witnessed 62% shrinkage in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.82mn shares, 57% in value to QR21.09mn and 52% in deals to 428. The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 61% to 2.81mn equities, value by 49% to QR59.84mn and transactions by 38% to 963.
There was 54% decline in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.39mn stocks, 47% in value to QR21.91mn and 44% in deals to 620.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume shrank 40% to 0.28mn shares, value by 35% to QR20.06mn and transactions by 14% to 388.
However, the transport sector reported 3% increase in trade volume to 0.9mn equities but on 22% fall in value to QR18.74mn and 4% deals to 452.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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