QE sustains gains on buying support from foreign traders

By Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Qatar Telecom and Barwa were among the prime gainers on the QE yesterday

The Qatar Exchange sustained the bullish momentum for the second day yesterday on robust buying support from foreign institutions.The 20-stock benchmark gained 1.02% or 86 points to 8,544.18 despite profit-booking by domestic institutions.Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Qatar Telecom and Barwa were among the prime gainers yesterday. The market is however down 1.58% year-to-date.The indices of services, industry and banks gained 1.15%, 1.05% and 0.97% respectively; while insurance was unchanged.Market capitalisation rose 0.80% or more than QR3bn to QR436.71bn mainly with mid, large and small cap equities gaining 1%, 0.83% and 0.55% respectively.Of the 42 stocks, 29 gained, while only five declined. Five others were unchanged and three were not traded.Foreign institutions were increasingly bullish as their net buying surged to 15.82% from 6.48% in the previous day.A higher 34.27% of them were into buying compared to 26.26% on Sunday; while a marginally lower 18.45% were into selling against 19.78%.However, domestic institutions were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling rose to 7.55% from 1.12% in the previous day.A lower 17.03% of them bought equities against 19.41% on Sunday; while a higher 24.58% of them sold compared to 20.53%.Qatari individual investors’ bearish grip strengthened as their net selling was up to 6.71% from 4.91% in the previous day.A lower 36.61% of them purchased equities against 38.29% on Sunday; while a marginally higher 43.32% sold compared to 43.20%.Non-Qatari retail investors were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling rose to 1.56% from 0.44% in the previous day.A lower 12.09% of them were into buying compared to 16.05% on Sunday and a lower 13.65% were into offloading against 16.49%.Total trading volume more than doubled to 6.34mn equities, value surged 95% to QR247.59mn and deals by 46% to 4,098.Banks’ trading volume almost tripled to 2.22mn equities, value more than doubled to QR83.17mn on a 69% jump in transactions to 1,294.The services sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 3.64mn shares, value doubled to QR120.92mn on a 57% rise in deals to 2,336.The insurance sector’s trading volume expanded by 50% to 0.06mn shares, value by 66% to QR3.21mn and transactions by 81% to 47.However, the industrial sector witnessed a 27% decline in trading volume to 0.41mn shares whereas value rose 31% to QR40.30mn. Transactions were down 21% to 421.Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Masraf Al Rayan (1.34mn shares); Barwa (1.23mn); Gulf International Services (623,232); Nakilat (360,319) and Vodafone Qatar (303,377).