The Qatar Stock Exchange Sunday saw higher than average demand, especially at the banking counter, as its key barometer remained above 10,200 levels..text-box { float:left; width:250px; padding:1px; border:1pt white; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px;}@media only screen and (max-width: 767px) {.text-box {width: 30%;}}**media[103804]**The foreign institutions were seen increasingly into net buying as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 20 points or 0.19% to 10,241.17 points.The domestic funds were also increasingly net buyers in the main market, whose year-to-date losses were minimised to 4.12%.More than 55% of the traded constituents extended gains in the main bourse, whose capitalisation added QR1.17bn or 0.2% to QR598.76bn with small cap segments gaining the most.The Arab retail investors turned bullish in the main market, which touched an intraday high of 10,293 points.However, the local individuals were increasingly net profit takers in the main bourse, which saw as many as 7,378 exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.02mn trade across five deals.The Gulf institutions turned net sellers in the main market, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds and treasury bills.The Islamic index was seen gaining slower than the other indices in the main bourse, which witnessed no trading of treasury bills.The Total Return Index rose 0.19%, the All Share Index by 0.26% and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.04% in the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the decline.The banks and financial services sector index gained 0.61%, transport (0.23%) and consumer goods and services (0.12%); while real estate declined 0.77%, insurance (0.37%), industrials (0.17%) and telecom (0.02%).Major gainers in the main market included Qatar National Cement, Widam Food, Beema, Mannai Corporation, Doha Bank, Estithmar Holding and Milaha.In the venture market, Mahhar Holding saw its shares appreciate in value.Nevertheless, Barwa, Lesha Bank, Ezdan, Industries Qatar and Salam International Investment were among the losers in the main market.The foreign institutions’ net buying increased perceptibly to QR15.15mn compared to QR12.2mn on November 16.The Arab individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR10.96mn against net sellers of QR4.08mn last Thursday.The domestic funds’ net buying strengthened noticeably to QR10.67mn compared to QR2.05mn the previous trading day.However, the local individual investors’ net selling grew markedly to QR25.21mn against QR16.75mn on November 16.The Gulf institutions were net sellers to the extent of QR7.71mn compared with net buyers of QR6.44mn last Thursday.The foreign retail investors’ net profit booking increased noticeably to QR3.12mn against QR0.2mn the previous trading day.The Gulf individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.75mn compared with net buyers of QR0.34mn on November 16.The Arab institutions had no major net exposure for the eleventh consecutive session.Trade volumes in the main market fell 24% to 163.94mn shares, value by 26 to QR462.54mn and deals by 32% to 15,126.The venture market witnessed a 51% contraction in trade volumes to 0.40mn equities, 50% jump in value to QR0.64mn and 40% in transactions to 46.
Santhosh V. Perumal
Santhosh V. Perumal, a postgraduate in Econometrics with an advance qualification in Capital Markets and Financial Services, is Gulf Times' journalist. His coverage areas are debt and equity, hydrocarbons, international trade, environment, banks, insurance and real estate. Previously, he was in New Delhi, India as Senior Finance Correspondent of PTI.
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