QE inches near 8,300 despite selling pressure

By Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

The QE’s 20-stock benchmark yesterday gained 0.12% or mere 10 points to 8,286.08

The Qatar Exchange opened the week with a marginal gain of 0.12% to inch near the 8,300 mark despite strong selling pressure from local retail and institutional investors.The 20-stock benchmark added mere 10 points to 8,286.08 even as foreign institutions largely held on to their portfolios. The market is down 4.56% year-to-date.Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Islamic Bank, Nakilat and Barwa were among the prime gainers; while QNB, Doha Bank, Qatar Telecom and Qatar Electricity and Water saw their stocks fall.The insurance index gained 0.87%, followed by services (0.30%), banks (0.02%) and industry (0.01%).Market capitalisation was down 0.01% or QR3mn to QR445.56bn mainly brought about by a 0.11% slide in large cap equities. Small and mid caps gained 1.12% and 0.36% respectively.Of the 42 stocks, 19 advanced, while 17 declined, two were unchanged and four were not traded.The investors, especially foreign institutions, are awaiting the outcome of the MSCI Index revision, which is scheduled to be unveiled next week.Domestic institutions turned profit-takers as they were net sellers to the tune of 3.27% compared with net buyers of 3.61% in the previous day.A higher 23.43% of them bought equities against 19.38% last Thursday but a much higher 26.70% of them also sold compared to 15.77%.Foreign institutions were bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 11.90% against net sellers of 1.65% in the previous day.A lower 25.74% of them were into buying compared to 37.19% last Thursday but a much lower 13.84% were into selling against 38.84%.Non-Qatari retail investors were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling rose to 3.51% from 0.72% in the previous day.A marginally higher 9.50% of them were into buying compared to 9.36% last Thursday and a higher 13.01% were into offloading against 10.08%.Qatari Individual investors’ bearish grip strengthened as their net selling rose to 5.12% from 1.23% in the previous day.A higher 41.33% of them purchased equities against 34.07% last Thursday while a much higher 46.45% sold compared to 35.30%.Total trading volume shrank 29% to 5.01mn equities, value by 36% to QR183.87mn and deals by 20% to 3,288.The insurance sector’s trading volume plummeted 50% to 0.02mn shares, value by 44% to QR1.44mn and transactions by 61% to 22.Banks’ trading volume plunged 36% to 1.38mn equities, value by 50% to QR64.37mn and deals by 33% to 1,067.The industrial sector witnessed a 36% slump in trading volume to 0.39mn shares, value by 42% to QR23.98mn and transactions by 9% to 415.The services sector’s trading volume sunk 24% to 3.22mn shares, value by 17% to QR94.08mn and deals by 11% to 1,784.Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Barwa (1.31mn shares); Masraf Al Rayan (820,673); Nakilat (752,399); Gulf International Services (238,997) and QNB (175,678).