Ahead of the Eid holidays, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) on Wednesday lost about 60 points, as foreign institutions squared off their position.

The telecom, consumer goods and insurance counters witnessed higher than average selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.56% to 10,558.34 points, although it touched an intraday high of 10,603 points.

The Gulf institutions were seen net profit takers in the main market, which registered 0.12% losses year-to-date.

About 64% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main bourse, whose capitalisation melted QR1.92bn or 0.31% to QR624.37bn mainly on account of small and microcap segments.

The foreign retail investors turned bearish in the main market, which saw as many as 9,476 exchange traded funds (sponsored by AlRayan Bank and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.04mn trade across five deals.

The domestic institutions’ weakened net buying had its influence on the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the rise.

The Islamic index was seen declining faster than the other indices of the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills.

However, the local retail investors turned bullish in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.

The Total Return Index shed 0.56%, the All Islamic Index 0.74% and the All Share Index 0.47% in the main market.

The telecom sector index tanked 1.6%, consumer goods and services (0.77%), insurance (0.64%), real estate (0.55%), banks and financial services (0.52%) and industrials (0.16%); while transport gained 0.26%.

Major shakers in the main market included Mannai Corporation, Commercial Bank, Vodafone Qatar, Woqod, QIIB, AlRayan Bank, Salam International Investment, Widam Food, Al Faleh Educational Holding, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qamco, Barwa and Ooredoo.

Nevertheless, Meeza, Ezdan, Al Meera, Gulf International Services, Dlala and Nakilat were among the movers in the main bourse.

The foreign institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR55.13mn compared with net buyers of QR12.61mn the previous day.

The Gulf institutions were net profit takers to the extent of QR1.62mn against net buyers of QR6.83mn on Tuesday.

The foreign retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.37mn compared with net buyers of QR1.64mn on June 3.

The domestic institutions’ net buying weakened marginally to QR14.51mn against QR15.53mn the previous day.

However, the local individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR36.06mn compared with net sellers of QR33.75mn on Tuesday.

The Gulf individual investors’ net buying strengthened significantly to QR3.46mn against QR0.99mn on June 3.

The Arab retail investors were net buyers to the extent of QR3.09mn compared with net sellers of QR4.16mn the previous day.

The Arab institutions had no major net exposure against net buyers to the tune of QR0.32mn on Tuesday.

The main market saw a 15% jump in trade volumes to 211.05mn shares, 13% in value to QR494.25mn and 84% in deals to 40,999; while there was no trading in the venture market.