By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
Foreign institutions were increasingly bearish yesterday as their net selling further surged to 27.16% from 17.23% the previous day
Intense profit-booking by foreign institutions eclipsed the strong buying interest from domestic institutions as the Qatar Exchange yesterday fell 1% to close below the 8,300 level.
The buying support from both local and foreign retail investors were weak as the 20-stock benchmark settled 82 points lower at 8,294.73.
The market is down 4.46% year-to-date.
Commercialbank, Doha Bank, Industries Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB, Mawashi and Barwa were among the hard hit.
Maximum selling pressure was seen in industries as its index lost 1.51%, followed by banks (1.05%) and services (0.74%). But insurance gained 0.85%.
Market capitalisation shrank 0.63% or about QR3bn to QR436.25bn with micro, mid and large cap equities paring 1.37%, 1.06% and 0.91% respectively.
Of the 42 stocks, only eight advanced, while 28 declined and three were unchanged. Three others were not traded.
Foreign institutions were increasingly bearish as their net selling further surged to 27.16% from 17.23% the previous day.
A marginally higher 10.90% of them were into buying compared to 9.24% on Sunday but a much higher 38.06% were into selling against 26.47%.
On the other hand, domestic institutions bullish grip considerably strengthened as their net buying zoomed to 23.76% from 6% the previous day.
A much higher 41.29% of them bought equities against 29.31% on Sunday whereas a lower 17.53% of them sold compared to 23.31%.
Qatari individual investors’ bullish grip weakened as their net buying fell to 2.61% from 7.51% the previous day.
A lower 36.28% of them purchased equities compared to 44.38% on Sunday and a lower 33.67% sold against 36.87%.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ bullish grip also slackened as their net buying sunk to 0.78% from 3.71% the previous day.
A lower 11.52% of them were into buying compared to 17.07% on Sunday and a lower 10.74% were into offloading against 13.36%.
Total trading volume shot up 74% to 9.30mn equities, value by 47% to QR377.70mn and deals by 16% to 5,064.
The insurance sector’s trading volume jumped five-fold to 0.10mn shares and so did value to QR5.39mn as transactions more than doubled to 91.
Banks’ trading volume more than tripled to 3.58mn equities and value more than doubled to QR140.01mn on an 86% rise in deals to 1,424.
The services sector’s trading volume gained 34% to 4.80mn shares and value by 21% to QR155.94mn, but transactions fell 2% to 2,561.
The industrial sector’s trading was up 6% to 0.82mn shares, but value fell 1% to QR76.36mn. Deals rose 3% to 988.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Masraf Al Rayan (2.62mn shares); Mawashi (1.64mn); Barwa (806,768); Nakilat (730,611) and National Leasing (705,499).