The Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday entered the negative terrain to settle below 9,100 points despite bullish outlook of local and Gulf retail investors.
Strong selling — especially in insurance, real estate and banking counters — drove the 20-stock Qatar Index down 0.72% to 9,091.33 points.
Doha Bank and Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded funds QETF and QATR witnessed 4.83% and 0.21% declines respectively.
Domestic funds were increasingly net sellers and their Gulf counterparts turned bearish on the market, which is up 6.66% year-to-date.
Profit-booking was rather strong within large cap segments on the bourse, whose capitalisation eroded 0.73% to QR508.25bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the market, where industrials, banking and telecom sectors together accounted for about 76% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index shed 0.72% to 16,017.91 points and All Share Index by 0.68% to 2,708.43 points, while Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) was up 0.06% to 2,280.32 points.
The insurance index tanked 2.8%, realty (1.48%), banks and financial services (0.97%), telecom (0.45%) and industrials (0.26%); whereas consumer goods and transport gained 2.99% and 0.21% respectively.
More than 58% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Qatar Insurance, Gulf International Services, Ezdan, QNB, Doha Bank, Qatar First Bank, Salam International Investment, Qatar Electricity and Water, Ooredoo and Nakilat.
Nevertheless, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Woqod, QIIB, Barwa, Milaha and Vodafone Qatar were among the gainers.
Domestic institutions’ net selling increased considerably to QR20.5mn compared to QR7.86mn on April 23.
The Gulf institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR6.8mn against net buyers of QR12.99mn the previous day.
However, local individuals were net buyers to the extent of QR21.32mn compared with net sellers of QR6.4mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened marginally to QR5.73mn against QR4.87mn on April 23.
The Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.45mn compared with net sellers of QR1.75mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking declined perceptibly to QR0.14mn against QR1.81mn on Monday.
Total trade volume fell 29% to 10mn shares, value by 11% to QR282.04mn and transactions by 4% to 4,022.
The telecom sector reported 77% plunge in trade volume to 1.38mn equities, 66% in value to QR21.23mn and 54% in deals to 337.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 37% to 0.91mn stocks, value by 39% to QR12.81mn and transactions by 28% to 338.
The banks and financial services sector saw 30% shrinkage in trade volume to 2.21mn shares, 24% in value to QR79.9mn and 12% in deals to 1,206.
However, the industrials sector’s trade volume soared 75% to 3.99mn equities, value by 25% to QR94.98mn and transactions by 25% to 907.
The market witnessed 27% surge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.28mn stocks, 37% in value to QR10.32mn and 22% in deals to 229.
The transport sector’s trade volume expanded 22% to 0.62mn shares, value by 13% to QR12.48mn and transactions by 13% to 324.
There was 19% increase in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.62mn equities, 45% in value to QR50.33mn and 56% in deals to 681.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
