Foreign selling pressure lands Qatar shares in losses, but volumes surge

Selling pressure from foreign retail traders and institutions yesterday landed the Qatar Exchange back in the negative turf.Small and large cap equities experienced selling pressure as the QE Index (based on price data) fell 0.03% to 8,254.10 points. The market is down 5.98% year-to-date.The All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) and the Total Return Index also fell 0.10% and 0.03% to 1,988.75 and 11,170.78 points respectively. Both the indices factored in dividend income as well.Major losers included QNB, Qatari Investors Group, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar and Qatar Telecom; even as Dlala, Industries Qatar, Nakilat and Gulf Warehousing bucked the trend.Under the All Share Index category, the telecom index lost 0.66%, followed by realty (0.43%), banks and financial services (0.14%) and insurance (0.09%); while the indices of transport and consumer goods rose 0.49% and 0.46% respectively. The industrials index closed flat.Market capitalisation was down 0.23% or more than QR1bn to QR452.37bn with small and large cap equities losing 0.46% and 0.10% respectively; while mid caps rose 0.32%.Of the 42 stocks, 14 gained, while 19 declined, five were unchanged and four were not traded.Foreign institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser intensity as their net buying sunk to 1.61% from 12.66% the previous day. Their net buying amounted to QR2.82mn.A lower 23.27% of them were into buying against 27.76% on Tuesday, whereas a higher 21.66% of them into selling compared to 15.10%.Non-Qatari retail investors were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling surged to 9.66% from 3.46% the previous day. Their net selling was QR16.93mn.A higher 19.56% of them were into buying against 16.70% on Tuesday and a higher 29.22% were into offloading against 20.16%.However, domestic institutions turned bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 8.48% against net sellers of 4.83% the previous day. Their net buying was QR14.86mn.A marginally higher 16.51% of them bought equities compared to 15.95% on Tuesday, while a much lower 8.03% offloaded against 20.78%.Qatari individual investors continued to be bearish but with lesser vigour as their net selling fell to 0.42% from 4.37% the previous day. Their net selling amounted to QR0.74mn.A marginally higher 40.66% of them purchased equities compared to 39.59% on Tuesday whereas a lower 41.08% sold against 43.96%.Total trading volume gained 37% to 7.83mn equities, value by 26% to QR175.29mn and deals by 26% to 3,088.The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume more than tripled to 0.62mn shares, value rose 51% to QR12.54mn and transactions by 4% to 182.The industrials sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 0.83mn shares, value soared 27% to QR48.59mn and deals by 37% to 692.The telecom sector’s trading volume surged 61% to 2.47mn shares, value by 90% to QR29.33mn and transactions by 53% to 457.The insurance sector’s trading volume gained 50% to 0.03mn shares, value by 73% to QR1.76mn and deals by 52% to 44.The transport sector’s trading volume expanded 47% to 0.56mn shares, value by 38% to QR12.27mn and transactions by 29% to 204.The real estate sector’s trading volume was up 16% to 0.88mn shares, value by 23% to QR13.74mn and deals by 27% to 362.However, the banks and financial services sector’s trading volume was flat at 2.43mn shares, but value rose 2% to QR57.06mn and transactions by 15% to 1,087.Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Vodafone Qatar (2.40mn shares); Qatar Oman Investment (1.65mn); Mazaya Qatar (646,848); Salam International Investment (461,729) and Nakilat (431,767).In the debt market, there was no trading.