Qatar shares at 11-week low on selling pressure

The Qatar Exchange yesterday tanked below the 8,600 mark mainly on selling pressure from foreign institutions and extremely low buying support from their domestic counterparts.The 20-stock benchmark lost 0.52% to hit an 11-week low of 8,555.22 points although it briefly remained above the 8,600 mark intra-day. The market is down 2.48% year-to-date.More than 64% of the stocks were in the red and the prominent losers among them were Industries Qatar, International Islamic, Doha Bank, Qatar Navigation, Nakilat and Barwa.The insurance index witnessed the maximum shrinkage of 3%, followed by industry (0.99%), services (0.93%) and banks (0.12%).Market capitalisation shrank 0.91% or more than QR4bn to QR446.65bn with small, mid and large cap equities losing 0.85%, 0.69% and 0.47% respectively; even as micro caps rose 0.36%.Of the 42 stocks, only eight advanced, while 27 declined, three were unchanged and four not traded.Foreign institutions were increasingly bearish as their net selling rose to 21.13% from 15.18% the previous day.A lower 17.98% of them were into buying compared to 22.71% on Tuesday whereas a higher 39.11% of them into selling against 37.89%.Domestic institutions’ buying support considerably weakened as their net buying plunged to 1.61% from 15.03% the previous day.A much lower 19.61% of them bought equities against 31.60% on Tuesday while a higher 18% offloaded compared to 16.57%.Qatari individual investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 18.73% against net sellers of 1.99% the previous day.A much higher 51.83% of them purchased equities compared to 33.45% on Tuesday whereas a lower 33.10% sold against 35.44%.Non-Qatari retail investors’ bullish grip slackened as their net buying fell to 0.80% from 2.13% the previous day.A lower 10.59% of them were into buying against 12.24% on Tuesday and a marginally lower 9.79% were into offloading compared to 10.11%.Total trading volumes rose 22% to 4.20mn equities, value by 7% to QR160.79mn and deals by 13% to 2,721.The insurance sector’s trading volume jumped five-fold to 0.05mn shares and value rose almost eight-fold to QR3.18mn on more than tripled transactions to 50.The services sector’s trading volume soared 64% to 2.18mn shares, value by 44% to QR53.20mn and deals by 42% to 1,308.The industrial sector’s trading volume was up 3% to 0.62mn shares, value by 11% to QR33.15mn and transactions by 3% to 502.However, banks’ trading volume fell 10% to 1.36mn shares, value by 14% to QR71.26mn and deals by 13% to 861.Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Nakilat (1.02mn shares); Masraf Al Rayan (760,060); United Development Company (389,115); Barwa (300,485) and Qatar Islamic Bank (178,267).