Reflecting the cabinet nod to increase the foreign ownership limit in the listed firms to 100%, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday vaulted 294 points and its key index settled near 10,900 levels.
Foreign funds’ substantial buying interests led the 20-stock Qatar Index zoom 2.97% to 10,899.06 points, having touched an intraday low of 10,714 points.
The banking sector experienced heavy demand in the bourse, whose year-to-date gains swelled to 4.44%.
The Arab individuals were also seen bullish in the market, whose capitalisation saw more than QR7bn or 1.18% jump to QR627.08bn, mainly owing to large and small cap segments.
Nevertheless, more than 54% of the traded constituents were in the red in the market, which saw the foreign individuals continued to be net profit takers but with a lesser intensity.
Both domestic funds and local retail investors were increasingly into net selling in the bourse, which saw a total of 283,547 exchange traded funds (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored QATR and Doha Bank sponsored QETF) valued at QR2.15mn changed hands across 42 deals; while in the debt market, there was no trading of sovereign bonds and treasury bills.
The Total Return Index soared 2.77% to 21,566.84 points, All Share Index by 1.86% to 3,435.8 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 2.63% to 2,525.67 points.
The banks and financial services index shot up 3.11%, consumer goods and services (2.08%), industrials (0.81%) and real estate (0.48%); whereas transport declined 1.27%, insurance (1.21%) and telecom (0.67%).
Major gainers included Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, QIIB, Masraf Al Rayan, Woqod, Al Khaliji, Mannai Corporation, Industries Qatar and Barwa.
Nevertheless, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Milaha, Investment Holding Group, Qatar National Cement, Investment Holding Group, Qatar National Cement, Widam Food, QNB, Qatari German Medical Devices, Qatar Insurance, Al Khaleej Takaful, QLM and Vodafone Qatar were among the losers.
The foreign institutions’ net buying zoomed significantly to QR388.02mn against QR32.62mn on April 14.
The Arab individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR4.61mn compared with net sellers of QR10.31mn on Wednesday.
The foreign individuals’ net selling decreased marginally to QR2.31mn against QR2.38mn the previous day.
However, domestic funds’ net selling grew substantially to QR186.07mn compared to QR5.43mn on April 14.
Local retail investors’ net selling declined considerably to QR162.89mn against QR9.88mn on Wednesday.
The Gulf funds’ net profit booking strengthened markedly to QR22.67mn compared to QR3.66mn the previous day. The Gulf individuals’ net selling shot up noticeably to QR18.44mn against QR0.97mn on April 14.
The Arab funds were net profit takers to the extent of QR0.27mn compared with no major net exposure on Wednesday.
Total trade volume more than doubled to 335.62mn shares and value almost quadrupled to QR1.28bn on more than doubled transactions to 20,647.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume grew more than seven-fold to 165.82mn equities and value by about 10-fold to QR889.03mn on seven-fold jump in deals to 12,406.
The transport sector’s trade volume rose more than six-fold to 15.21mn stocks and value by more than seven-fold to QR57.73mn on almost five-fold growth in transactions to 767. The telecom sector’s trade volume expanded more than five-fold to 8.91mn shares and value more than tripled to QR22.01mn on doubled deals to 748.
There was 42% surge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 83.56mn equities, 55% in value to QR149.45mn and 23% in transactions to 2,929.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 53% to 3.62mn stocks, value by 55% to QR13.06mn and deals by 32% to 381.
The real estate sector saw 28% plunge in trade volume to 20.18mn shares and 21% in value to QR37.09mn but on 34% jump in transactions to 1,246.
The consumer goods and services sector’s trade volume was down 12% to 38.32mn equities, while value doubled to QR112.22mn and deals shot up 69% to 2,170.      
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