By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
The Qatar Exchange ended flat yesterday despite local retail and institutional investors’ buying interest.
Foreign institutions continued to be profit-takers on the QE yesterday, but with lesser intensity, as their selling fell to 26.92% from 30.63% the previous day
The 20-stock benchmark settled 0.01% lower at 8,095.54 points even as foreign institutions exerted some buying pressure.
The market is down 6.75% year-to-date.
The indices of insurance and industry fell 0.76% and 0.33%; while those of banks gained 0.10% and services was unchanged.
Market capitalisation, however, edged up 0.16% or QR69mn to QR430.01bn mainly on small, micro and mid cap equities gaining 0.70%, 0.30% and 0.25% respectively. Large caps fell 0.02%.
Of the 42 stocks, 21 advanced, while 16 declined, four were unchanged and one was not traded.
Foreign institutions continued to be profit-takers but with lesser intensity as their selling fell to 26.92% from 30.63% the previous day.
A much higher 16.16% of them were into buying compared to 4.55% on Sunday although a higher 43.08% were into selling against 35.18%.
Domestic institutions’ bullish grip considerably strengthened as their net buying surged to 9.93% from 0.23% the previous day.
A lower 21.35% of them bought equities against 27.09% on Sunday but a much lower 11.42% of them sold compared to 26.86%.
Qatari individual investors’ bullish grip also considerably slackened as their net buying sunk to 14.33% from 26.85% the previous day.
A lower 48.56% of them purchased equities compared to 55.97% on Sunday while a higher 34.23% sold against 29.12%.
Non-Qatari retail investors continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as their net buying sunk to 2.67% from 3.55% the previous day.
A marginally higher 13.93% of them were into buying compared to 12.40% on Sunday and a higher 11.26% were into offloading against 8.85%.
Total trading volume shrank 47% to 3.16mn equities, value by 50% to QR129.88mn and deals by 31% to 2,770.
The industrial sector’s trading volume plummeted 81% to 0.21mn shares, value by 78% to QR21.19mn and transactions by 60% to 361.
The banks’ trading volume plunged 46% to 0.92mn equities, value by 39% to QR53.14mn and deals by 18% to 937.
The insurance sector’s trading volume tanked 38% to 0.05mn shares, value by 17% to QR2.80mn and transactions by 35% to 52.
The services sector’s trading volume sunk 36% to 1.99mn shares, value by 26% to QR52.75mn and deals by 25% to 1,420.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Mawashi (697,332 shares); Rayan (432,420); Barwa (359,926); Vodafone Qatar (281,804) and Nakilat (247,345).
