The Gulf institutions bearish outlook and substantially weakened net buying interests of foreign funds on Wednesday steered the Qatar Stock Exchange onto the negative turf.

Selling pressure was seen more within the telecom counter as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.43% lower at 9,355.02 points.

Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored exchange traded fund QATR shrank 0.91%, while Doha Bank-sponsored QETF witnessed 1.64% gains.

Islamic stocks were seen declining slower than the other indices on the market, which reported 9.76% gains year-to-date.

However, there was weakened net selling by Gulf and non-Qatari retail investors as well as domestic funds on the bourse, whose capitalisation fell 0.19% to QR511.11bn, mainly on microcaps.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the market, where bank and real estate sectors together accounted for about 51% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index shed 0.43% to 16,482.51 points, All Share Index by 0.19% to 2,705.44 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.07% to 2,294.43 points.

The telecom index declined 0.51%, banks and financial services (0.29%), insurance (0.24%), industrials (0.19%) and consumer goods (0.14%); while realty and transport were up 0.25% and 0.02% respectively.

About 56% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Doha Insurance, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo and Milaha; even as Aamal Company, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services, QNB, Barwa and Nakilat were among the gainers.

The Gulf institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR1.72mn compared with net buyers of QR4.91mn on July 10.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened significantly to QR21.97mn against QR43.27mn the previous day.

However, local individuals’ net selling declined considerably to QR19.57mn compared to QR38.57mn on Tuesday.

Domestic institutions’ net profit booking also shrank substantially to QR0.3mn against QR6.75mn on July 10.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling decreased influentially to QR0.21mn compared to QR2.28mn the previous day.

The Gulf individual investors’ net profit booking fell perceptibly to QR0.19mn against QR0.61mn on Tuesday.

Total trade volume fell 63% to 3.93mn shares, value by 53% to QR121.27mn and transactions by 29% to 2,617.

The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 92% to 0.43mn equities, value by 87% to QR8.84mn and deals by 46% to 305.

The consumer goods sector saw 76% plunge in trade volume to 0.11mn stocks, 72% in value to QR7.75mn and 47% in transactions to 173.

The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 71% to 0.19mn shares, value by 63% to QR5.85mn and deals by 36% to 181.

The banks and financial services sector saw 37% shrinkage in trade volume to 1.14mn equities, 35% in value to QR49.97mn and 24% in transactions to 759.

The real estate sector’s trade volume shrank 34% to 0.85mn stocks, value by 29% to QR14.62mn and deals by 32% to 339.

There was 25% decline in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.49mn shares, 37% in value to QR20.93mn and 27% in transactions to 575.

However, the transport sector’s trade volume soared 20% to 0.72mn equities, value by 10% to QR13.32mn and deals by 11% to 285.

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