Business Reporter
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| Qatari individual investors were increasingly bearish yesterday on the Doha bourse |
Although local retail investors were increasingly profit takers, the 20-stock benchmark settled 12 points higher at 8,464.04 points. The market is however down 2.51% year-to-date.
Gulf Warehousing, National Leasing, QNB and Commercialbank were among the gainers; even as United Development Company (UDC), Mawashi and Qatar Islamic Bank bucked the trend.
The indices of insurance, services and lenders gained 0.39%, 0.23% and 0.13% respectively, while that of industry fell 0.09%.
Market capitalisation was up 0.17% or QR75mn to QR443.84bn with micro and large cap equities gaining 0.26% and 0.19% respectively, even as mid caps lost 0.12%.
Of the 42 stocks, 18 advanced, while 16 declined, six were unchanged and two were not traded.
Foreign institutions’ profit booking weakened considerably as their net selling plunged to 1.32% from 12.09% in the previous day.
A higher 17.91% of them were into buying compared to 9.70% on Tuesday whereas a lower 19.23% were into selling against 21.79%.
Domestic institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser intensity as their net buying fell to 8.74% from 12.80% in the previous day.
A much lower 26.20% of them bought equities against 33.69% on Tuesday and a lower 17.46% of them sold compared to 20.89%.
Qatari individual investors were increasingly bearish as their net selling surged to 8.02% from 0.77% in the previous day.
A lower 38.69% of them purchased equities compared to 42.67% on Tuesday whereas a higher 46.71% sold against 43.44%.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ bullish grip marginally strengthened as their net buying rose to 0.59% from 0.06% in the previous day.
A higher 17.19% of them were into buying against 13.94% on Tuesday and a higher 16.60% were into offloading compared to 13.88%.
Total trading volume fell 16% to 7.36mn equities and value by 7% to QR253.14mn but deals rose by less than 1% to 4,253.
The industrial sector’s trading volume plummeted 60% to 0.75mn shares, value by 39% to QR33.13mn and transactions by 40% to 541.
The services sector’s trading volume was down 8% to 4.53mn shares and value by 9% to QR126.99mn whereas deals rose 13% to 2,551.
However, the insurance sector’s trading volume soared 67% to 0.02mn shares, value by 72% to QR1.36mn and transactions by 26% to 43.
The banks’ trading volume was up 7% to 2.05mn shares, value by 20% to QR91.67mn and deals by 6% to
1,118.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Mawashi (2.04mn shares); Masraf Al Rayan (1.25mn); Barwa (1.18mn); UDC (426,706) and Nakilat (424,146).