Business Reporter
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| Despite the strong buying interest from local retail investors, the QE benchmark settled 1.16% or 95 points lower at 8,096.09 on fears that the US and Europe might be heading toward a recession |
Despite the strong buying interest from local retail investors, the 20-stock benchmark settled 1.16% or 95 points lower at 8,096.09 on fears that the US and Europe might probably be heading toward a recession.
The market is down 6.75% year-to-date.
Industries Qatar (IQ), Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercialbank, Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Nakilat and Barwa were among the prime shakers.
The industrial index lost the maximum of 2.45%, followed by services (1.11%), banks (0.88%) and insurance (0.38%).
Market capitalisation shrank 1.32% or about QR6bn to QR429.32bn.
Of the 42 stocks, only eight advanced, while 33 declined and one was not traded.
Foreign institutions were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling zoomed to 30.63% from 16.44% the previous trading day.
A lower 4.55% of them were into buying compared to 9.77% last Thursday while a higher 35.18% were into selling against 26.21%.
Domestic institutions’ bullish grip considerably weakened as their net buying plummeted to 0.23% from 19.71% the previous day.
A lower 27.09% of them bought equities against 34.12% last Thursday whereas a much higher 26.86% of them sold compared to 14.41%.
However, Qatari individual investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 26.85% against net sellers of 1.97% the previous day.
A much higher 55.97% of them purchased equities compared to 40.10% last Thursday while a much lower 29.12% sold against 42.07%.
Non-Qatari retail investors also turned bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 3.55% compared with net sellers of 1.31% the previous day.
A lower 12.40% of them were into buying compared to 16% last Thursday and a lower 8.85% were into offloading against 17.31%.
Total trading volume surged 23% to 5.96mn equities, value by 34% to QR260.95mn and deals by 8% to 4,019.
The insurance sector’s trading volume quadrupled to 0.08mn shares and value more than doubled to QR3.38mn as transactions doubled to 80.
The industrial sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 1.10mn shares and so did value to QR95.26mn on a 70% jump in deals to 898.
The banks’ trading volume shot up 48% to 1.69mn equities, value by 28% to QR87.75mn and transactions by 3% to 1,140.
The services sector’s trading volume was down 4% to 3.09mn shares, value by 16% to QR74.57mn and deals by 8% to 1,901.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Mawashi (1.03mn shares); Rayan (988,072); IQ (696,346); Vodafone Qatar (657,806) and Barwa (494,201).