An across-the-board selling — particularly in insurance, real estate and telecom — on Tuesday further dragged the Qatar Stock Exchange below 8,900 levels.

Weakened buying interests of local and non-Qatari retail investors as well as domestic funds were visible as the 20-stock Qatar Index fell 0.47% for the second straight session to 8,895.21 points.

Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank sponsored exchange traded funds QATR and QETF declined 2.5% and 0.67% respectively.

Islamic stocks were seen declining slower than the other indices in the market, which is up 4.36% year-to-date.

Foreign institutions continued to be net sellers but with lesser vigour on the bourse, whose capitalisation fell 0.5% to QR487.23bn, mainly dragged by large and midcaps.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the market, where banks alone accounted for more than 46% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index shed 0.47% to 15,672.37 points, All Share Index by 0.58% to 2,584.4 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.42% to 2,178.87 points.

The insurance index shrank 1.34%, realty (1.33%), telecom (1.1%), banks and financial services (0.5%), transport (0.42%), industrials (0.16%) and consumer goods (0.06%).

More than 68% of the stocks were in the red with major shakers being Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar Insurance, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Nakilat, Qatar First Bank, Qatar Electricity and Water, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Medicare Group; whereas Dlala, Industries Qatar and Zad Holding were among the gainers.

Local individual investors’ net buying weakened considerably to QR1.21mn against QR30.08mn the previous day.

Domestic institutions’ net buying declined influentially to QR7.13mn compared to QR9.27mn on June 25.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying fell perceptibly to QR0.48mn against QR2.08mn on Monday.

However, the Gulf institutions’ net buying grew marginally to QR5.8mn compared to QR5.13mn the previous day.

The Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.08mn against net sellers of QR0.22mn on June 25.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking declined significantly to QR14.71mn compared to QR46.33mn on Monday.

Total trade volume fell 33% to 4.47mn shares, value by 48% to QR114.12mn and transactions by 38% to 2,120.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 81% to 0.06mn equities, value by 87% to QR5.04mn and deals by 65% to 90.

The telecom sector reported 79% plunge in trade volume to 0.39mn stocks, 75% in value to QR8.64mn and 60% in transactions to 216.

The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 32% to 0.3mn shares, value by 28% to QR10.89mn and deals by 31% to 193.

There was 27% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 0.85mn equities, 42% in value to QR9.89mn and 10% in transactions to 417.

The transport sector’s trade volume declined 27% 0.19mn stocks, whereas value expanded 36% to QR6.5mn and deals by 3% to 151.

The industrials sector saw 6% fall in trade volume to 0.61mn shares, 46% in value to QR15.31mn and 58% in transactions to 248.

However, the banks and financial services sector’s trade volume was up 7% to 2.07mn equities, while value shrank 29% to QR57.85mn and deals by 30% to 805.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills; whereas as many as 10,000 sovereign bonds valued at QR100mn traded across one transaction.