Qatar shares snap 3-day losing streak on retail buying support

Qatari stocks strengthened yesterday, after three days of bearish spell, mainly on buying support from local retail investors.Led by industrials, transport and realty equities, the QE Index (based on price data) gained 0.31% to 8,276.62 points. The market is, however, down 5.72% year-to-date.The All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) and the Total Return Index rose 0.33% and 0.31% to 1,996.47 and 11,201.26 points respectively. Both the indices factored in dividend income as well.About 62% of the stocks extended gains to investors with major movers being Commercialbank, QNB, Qatari Investors Group, Industries Qatar, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat. Qatar Telecom and Gulf Warehousing Company (GWC) bucked the trend.Under the All Share Index category, the industrials index gained 0.73%, followed by transport (0.40%), real estate (0.32%), insurance (0.28%), consumer goods (0.26%) and banks and financial services (0.21%); while that of telecom fell 0.14%.Market capitalisation expanded 0.42% or about QR2bn to QR445.22bn with large and micro cap equities gaining 0.42% each and small caps 0.28%; whereas mid caps melted 0.14%.Of the 42 stocks, 26 gained, while only eight declined and four were unchanged. Four others were not traded.Qatari individual investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 2.94% against net sellers of 17.92% the previous day. Their net buying amounted to QR4.48mn.A higher 47.68% of them purchased equities compared to 41.11% on Sunday, while a much lower 44.74% sold against 59.03%.However, non-Qatari retail investors turned profit-takers as they were net sellers to the extent of 6.97% compared with net buyers of 3.39% the previous day. Their net selling amounted to QR10.62mn.A lower 14.61% of them were into buying against 18.29% on Sunday, whereas a higher 21.58% were into offloading against 14.90%.Foreign institutions were increasingly bearish as their net selling rose to 6.55% from 2.86% the previous day. They were net sellers to the extent of QR9.98mn.A higher 19.07% of them were into buying against 15.40% on Sunday, while a higher 25.62% of them into selling compared to 18.26%.Domestic institutions continued to be bullish, but with lesser vigour, as their net buying sunk to 10.58% from 17.40% the previous day. They were net buyers to the tune of QR16.11mn.A lower 18.64% of them bought equities compared to 25.21% on Sunday, whereas a marginally higher 8.06% offloaded against 7.81%.Total trading volume rose 34% to 5.61mn equities, value by 22% to QR152.31mn and deals by 17% to 2,800.The transport sector’s trading volume almost tripled to 0.71mn shares and value more than quadrupled to QR25.37mn on an 86% jump in transactions to 363.The industrials sector’s trading volume soared 78% to 0.82mn shares, value by 77% to QR40.68mn and deals by 36% to 584.The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume surged 39% to 2.33mn shares, while value fell 9% to QR45.61mn but transactions rose 14% to 907.The real estate sector’s trading volume increased 25% to 0.69mn shares, value by 12% to QR10.88mn and deals by 5% to 294.The telecom sector’s trading volume was up 9% to 0.48mn shares, value by less than 1% to QR11.43mn and transactions by 31% to 231.However, the insurance sector’s trading volume plunged 52% to 0.10mn shares, value by 49% to QR5.47mn and deals by 48% to 107.The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume tanked 16% to 0.49mn shares and value by 8% to QR12.88mn while transactions rose 2% to 314.Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Qatar Oman Investment (1.79mn shares); Mazaya Qatar (497,250); GWC (453,193); Qatari Investors Group (429,787) and Vodafone Qatar (407,089).In the debt market, there was no trading.