The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday slipped for the second straight sessions to sub-8,900 levels, mainly on selling pressure in real estate and banking counters.
Insurance, real estate and telecom counters witnessed higher-than-average selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index fell 0.4% to 8,880.51 points.
Doha Bank and Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded funds QATR and QETF reported 0.51% and 3.05% declines respectively.
Domestic funds and local retail investors rather dragged the market, which is however up 4.19% year-to-date.
Mid and large cap stocks witnessed faster declines, leading to a 0.67% shrinkage in market capitalisation to QR491.78bn.
Trade turnover and volumes expanded significantly in the market, where transport and banking sectors together accounted for about 78% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index declined 0.4% to 15,646.47 points and All Share Index by 0.66% to 2,599.92 points, while Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) was up 0.09% to 2,165.36 points.
The insurance index fell 2.02%, realty (0.97%), telecom (0.77%), industrials (0.64%), banks and financial services (0.59%) and transport (0.07%); while consumer goods gained 0.19%.
Major shakers included Qatar Insurance, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, Nakilat, Ooredoo, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Qatari Investors Group, Doha Bank, Alijarah Holding and Qatar Oman Investment.
Nevertheless, Zad Holding, Qatar Electricity and Water, Gulf International Services, Untied Development Company, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar, Milaha, Gulf Warehousing and Qatar National Cement were among the gainers.
Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR397.87mn against net buyers of QR15mn on May 30.
Local individuals turned net sellers to the extent of QR42.1mn compared with net buyers of QR13.97mn on Wednesday.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR478.21mn against QR16.94mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net buying strengthened marginally to QR2.46mn compared to QR2mn on May 30.
The Gulf funds’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR40.35mn against QR48.25mn the previous day.
Total trade volume grew almost six-fold to 59.19mn shares and value by more than six-fold to QR3.51bn on more than doubled transactions to 14,289.
The transport sector’s trade volume rose about 12-fold to 24.18mn equities and value by more than 11-fold to QR378.83mn on more than tripled deals to 2,883.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume increased almost six-fold to 21.78mn stocks and value by about seven-fold to QR2.44bn on more than doubled transactions to 6,405.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 4.28mn shares and value also more than quadrupled to QR51.01mn on 77% jump in deals to 853.
The insurance sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 0.65mn equities and value also more than quadrupled to QR21.37mn on more than doubled transactions to 344.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.06mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR66.54mn on 31% increase in deals to 600.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 4.89mn shares and value more than quadrupled to QR538.09mn on 70% surge in transactions to 2,931.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.39mn equities, whereas value declined 20% to QR10.6mn despite 9% higher deals at 273.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
