Business Reporter
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| About QR12bn was eroded in market capitalisation on the opening day of the week yesterday |
Faster selling by foreign institutions outweighed domestic institutions’ strong buying interest as the Qatar Share Index (QSI) settled below the 8,300 mark with 40 of the 42 stocks closing in the red.
About QR12bn was eroded in market capitalisation on the opening day of the week, which also saw the key barometer touch an intra-day low of 8,054 points, raising fears that the QSI may sink below the 8,000 points. Some late buying ensured a recovery.
The market is down 4.65% year-to-date.
Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercialbank, QNB, Industries Qatar (IQ), Nakilat and Barwa were among the prime losers.
The banking index lost the maximum of 2.73%, followed by services (2.62%), insurance (1.81%) and industry (1.60%).
Market capitalisation plunged 2.61% to QR438.45bn with mid, micro, large and small cap equities falling 3.21%, 2.41%, 2.27% and 1.95% respectively.
Of the 42 stocks, only one advanced, while 40 declined and one was unchanged.
Foreign institutions turned profit-takers as they were net sellers to the tune of 32.22% against net buyers of 4.26% the previous trading day.
A much lower 8.51% of them were into buying compared to 29.46% last Thursday whereas a much higher 40.73% were into selling against 25.20%.
Domestic institutions turned bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 24.98% compared with net sellers of 1.57% in the previous day.
A much higher 37.86% of them bought equities against 19.48% last Thursday while a lower 12.88% of them sold compared to 21.05%.
Qatari individual investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 5.94% against net sellers of 0.28% the previous day.
A marginally lower 39.22% of them purchased equities against 39.26% last Thursday and a lower 33.28% sold compared to 39.54%.
Non-Qatari retail investors were also bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 1.31% against net sellers of 2.41% the previous day.
A higher 14.42% of them were into buying against 11.80% last Thursday while a marginally lower 13.11% were into offloading compared to 14.21%.
Total trading volume surged 72% to 12.20mn equities, value by 79% to QR552mn and deals by 59% to 7,875.
The insurance sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 0.11mn shares, so did value to QR6.04mn on a 139% jump in transactions to 141.
Banks’ trading volume soared 93% to 5.61mn equities, value by 54% to QR232.57mn and deals by 40% to 2,752.
The industrial sector’s trading volume expanded 84% to 1.16mn shares, value more than tripled to QR123.75mn as transactions more than doubled to 1,173.
The services sector’s trading volume shot up 51% to 5.32mn shares, value by 58% to QR189.64mn and deals by 60% to 3,809.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Masraf Al Rayan (3.54mn shares); Barwa (2mn); Nakilat (886,250); IQ (866,658) and Doha Bank (637,587).