By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
The Qatar Exchange will remain closed for Eid holidays from today until Thursday. It will reopen on Sunday
The Qatar Exchange saw sustained bullish momentum for the third day as its key index surpassed the 8,300 mark yesterday mainly supported by large and mid cap equities.
Domestic institutions and foreign retail investors were seen exerting bullish momentum as the 20-stock benchmark rose 0.75% or 62 points to 8,351.77.
The market is, however, down 3.80% year-to-date.
The bourse will remain closed for Eid holidays from today until Thursday. It will reopen on Sunday.
The services index gained the maximum of 0.90%, followed by banks (0.72%), insurance (0.63%) and industry (0.55%).
Commercialbank, QNB, Masraf Al Rayan, Industries Qatar (IQ) and Nakilat were among the prime gainers.
Market capitalisation rose 0.62% or about QR3bn to QR438.69bn with large, mid and small cap equities gaining 0.72%, 0.70% and 0.65% respectively.
Of the 42 stocks, 29 advanced, while nine declined and two were unchanged. Two others were not traded.
Domestic institutions’ bullish grip marginally gained as their net buying rose to 1.58% from 1.56% the previous day.
A higher 35.06% of them bought equities against 30.85% on Sunday although a higher 33.48% of them sold compared to 29.29%.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 1.12% against net sellers of 5.43% the previous day.
A marginally higher 12.66% of them were into buying compared to 11.49% on Sunday while a lower 11.54% were into offloading against 16.92%.
Qatari individual investors turned profit-takers as they were net sellers to the extent of 0.73% compared with net buyers of 2.50% the previous day.
A much lower 33.28% of them purchased equities compared to 43.89% on Sunday and a lower 34.01% sold against 41.39%.
Foreign institutions turned bearish as they were net sellers to the tune of 1.97% compared with net buyers of 1.38% in the previous day.
A higher 19% of them were into buying compared to 13.77% on Sunday and a higher 20.97% were into selling against 12.39%.
Total trading volume rose 14% to 7.92mn equities, value by 18% to QR300.71mn and deals more than doubled to 4,769.
Banks’ trading volume shot up 41% to 3.72mn equities, value by 33% to QR132.79mn and transactions by 16% to 1,706.
However, the insurance sector’s trading volume plunged 38% to 0.08mn shares whereas value rose 58% to QR6.02mn. Deals were down 33% to 54.
The industrial sector’s trading volume lost 5% to 0.84mn shares but value soared 22% to QR76.15mn. Transactions shrank 3% to 764.
The services sector’s trading volume fell less than 1% to 3.28mn shares, value by 4% to QR85.74mn and deals by 4% to 2,245.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Rayan (2.85mn shares); Mawashi (726,937); Nakilat (690,433); IQ (563,529) and Barwa (536,705).