Reflecting the positive sentiments in view of a 15-point ceasefire proposal from the US to Iran, the Qatar Stock Exchange Wednesday saw its key index add about 140 points, enhancing capitalisation by more than QR7bn.
An across the board buying led the 20-stock Qatar Index to gain 1.38% to 10,290.9 points, recovering from an intraday low of 10,219 points.
The Arab individuals turned net buyers in the main market, whose year-to-date losses truncated to 4.39%.
About 69% of the traded constituents extended gains to investors in the main bourse, whose capitalisation added QR7.03bn or 1.17% to QR607.21bn mainly on large and midcap segments.
The foreign institutions’ weakened net selling had its influence on the main market, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the decline.
The telecom and banking counters witnessed higher than average demand in the main bourse, which saw as many as 0.03mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by AlRayan Bank and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.24mn trade across 25 deals.
The Gulf retail investors were seen bullish, albeit at lower levels, in the main market, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds and sukuks.
The Islamic index was seen gaining slower than the other indices of the main bourse, which saw no trading of treasury bills.
The Total Return Index gained 1.38%, the All Share Index by 1.23% and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.14% in the main bourse.
The telecom sector index soared 2.37%, banks and financial services (1.61%), insurance (0.89%), consumer goods and services (0.78%), transport (0.54%), real estate (0.49%) and industrials (0.27%).
As many as 37 gained, while 14 declined three were unchanged in the main market.
Major movers in the main market included Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Commercial Bank, Ooredoo, Qatar Islamic Bank, QLM, AlRayan Bank, Woqod, Qatar National Cement and Estithmar Holding.
Nevertheless, Qatar Cinema and Film Distribution, Beema, Doha Bank, Lesha Bank and Ahlibank Qatar were among the shakers in the main bourse.
In the venture market, Techno Q saw its shares depreciate in value.
The Arab retail investors were net buyers to the extent of QR2.49mn against net buyers of QR15.47mn on Tuesday.
The Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.56mn compared with net sellers of QR0.64mn on March 24.
The foreign institutions’ net profit booking decreased drastically to QR15.26mn against QR30.46mn the previous day.
The Gulf institutions’ net selling weakened marginally to QR24.54mn compared to QR25.52mn on Tuesday.
However, the domestic funds’ net profit booking strengthened perceptibly to QR10.81mn against QR8.25mn on March 24.
The foreign individuals were net sellers to the extent of QR2.43mn compared with net buyers of QR6.33mn the previous day.
The local retail investors’ net buying decreased significantly to QR49.99mn against QR74.01mn on Tuesday.
The Arab institutions had no major net exposure for the fifth straight session.
The main market saw a 32% contraction in trade volumes at 144.4mn shares, 32% in value to QR511.79mn and 34% in deals to 36,964.
In the venture market, a total of 0.03mn equities valued at QR0.06mn changed hands across 15 transactions.
