By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter
Investors, especially foreign institutions, yesterday sought to book profits, after four consecutive days of bullish spell, to drag the Qatar Exchange by 0.26% and its key index closed below the 8,400 mark.Domestic institutions were seen considerably reducing their exposure as the 20-stock benchmark settled 22 points lower at 8,396.53 points. The market is down 3.28% year-to-date.Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB, Doha Bank, Commercialbank (Cb), Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Electricity and Water and Nakilat were among those gripped by profit booking pressure.The indices of insurance, banks and services lost 0.76%, 0.40% and 0.37% respectively; while that of industry gained 0.76%.Market capitalisation was however up 0.11% or QR50mn to QR440.48bn with mid, micro and large cap equities notably losing 0.34%, 0.23% and 0.13% respectively.Of the 42 stocks, only 12 advanced, while 20 declined, seven were unchanged and three were not traded.Foreign institutions turned bearish that they were net sellers to the tune of 3.51% against net buyers of 2.97% in the previous day.A higher 20.79% of them were into buying compared to 16.92% on Wednesday but a much higher 24.30% were into selling against 13.95%.Domestic institutions’ bullish grip, however, strengthened as their net buying rose to 10.26% from 4.46% in the previous day.A much lower 41.42% of them bought equities against 51.07% on Wednesday and a much lower 31.21% of them sold compared to 46.61%.Qatari individual investors continued to be bearish but with lesser intensity as their selling fell to 3.83% from 4.48% in the previous day.A higher 30.37% of them purchased equities compared to 28.42% on Wednesday and a higher 34.20% sold against 32.90%.Non-Qatari retail investors’ profit booking marginally eased as their net selling fell to 2.87% from 2.94% in the previous day.A higher 7.42% of them were into buying against 3.59% on Wednesday and a higher 10.29% were into offloading compared to 6.53%.Total trading volume shrank 30% to 4.50mn equities, value by 29% to QR260.59mn and deals by 7% to 3,126.The banks’ trading volume plummeted 45% to 2.10mn shares, value by 41% to QR121.58mn and transactions by 25% to 1,225.The services sector’s trading volume plunged 26% to 1.56mn shares, value by 42% to QR67.54mn and deals by 10% to 1,077.However, the insurance sector’s trading volume doubled to 0.04mn shares and value rose 57% to QR2.25mn whereas transactions fell 5% to 41.The industrial sector’s trading volume surged 74% to 0.80mn shares, value by 60% to QR69.27mn and deals by 66% to 783.Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Rayan (657,449 shares); Doha Bank (582,079); Industries Qatar (470,478); Barwa (322,699) and Cb (264,097).Reuters adds: Bargain hunters lifted Egypt’s shares yesterday but Abu Dhabi’s index slumped to 14-month lows with banks leading the decline and other Gulf markets also fell.Cairo’s index rose 2.5% to 4,152 points, but is still down 43% this year and volumes until recently were near multi-year lows.Dealers say short-term trading has become the norm given the uncertain political backdrop and a lack of visibility for investors.“It’s the same scenario being repeated. The market crashes and every dip is a buy. Events are quickly reflected in the market,” said Omar Darwish at CIBC.In the UAE’s capital, National Bank of Abu Dhabi fell 1.5%, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank slipped 1.8% and Investment Bank dropped 5.9%. The Abu Dhabi benchmark slipped 0.4% to 2,478 points.“Banks will be interesting once the numbers are out because they will be telling us about the credit quality and loan growth,” said a trader based in Abu Dhabi. “But it’s too risky to be buying banks before the numbers.”Dubai’s share index ended little changed, up 0.06% at 1,385 points with only 33.7mn shares exchanging hands, against the 50-day average of 68.5mn shares.In Oman, the index eased 0.06% to 5,516 points, while Kuwait’s measure rose 0.3% to 5,868 points and Bahrain’s climbed 0.2% to 1,150 points.