By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

 

The Qatar Exchange started functioning from its new premises at Al Dana Tower at West Bay yesterday. The bourse occupies the 1st to 5th floors of the main tower along with levels of the annex adjacent to the main building.

A temporary hall has been set up in the first floor of the tower to host the investors. Most of the licensed brokerage companies will gradually open offices in the 1st floor of the main tower to provide regular services to investors.

Meanwhile, the bourse edged down yesterday mainly on heavy profit-booking by local retail investors.

Domestic institutions’ strong buying support notwithstanding, the 20-stock QE Index (based on price data) fell 0.17% to 8,513.93 points.

The telecom segment primarily dragged the market, which is, however, up 1.85% year-to-date (YTD).

Consumer goods, telecom, industrials, transport and banking sectors outperformed the index by gaining 7.41%, 6.74%, 6.74%, 6.38% and 3.67% YTD respectively, while insurance and real estate were in the negative turf.

Major shakers included Qatar Telecom, Commercialbank (Cb), International Islamic and Nakilat; even as Gulf International Services (GIS), QNB and Qatar Islamic Bank bucked the trend.

The 20-stock Total Return Index fell 0.17% to 11,842.55 points and the All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.02% to 2,109.82 points; while the AL Rayan Islamic Index was up 0.03% to 2,564.72 points.

All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.

Under the All Share Index category, the telecom and transport indices shrank 2.52% and 0.19% respectively, whereas consumer goods gained 0.87%, followed by insurance (0.78%), industrials (0.16%), banks and financial services (0.14%) and realty (0.02%).

Market capitalisation was down 0.06%, or QR26mn, to QR465.88bn with small and micro cap equities notably melting 0.21% each, even as mid caps rose 0.18%.

Mid and large cap equities have gained 3.31% and 0.67% YTD respectively; while micro and small caps lost 2.21% and 1.98% respectively.

Of the 42 stocks, 18 advanced, while 13 declined, six were unchanged and five were not traded.

Qatari individual investors’ net profit-booking surged to 35.48% or 101.63mn. A lower 24.02% of them purchased equities compared to 30.77% the previous day, whereas a much higher 59.50% sold against 46.63%.

Non-Qatari retail investors’ net buying fell to 3.03% or QR8.68mn. A lower 13.59% of them bought equities compared to 16.88% last Thursday and a lower 10.56% sold against 14.15%.

On the other hand, domestic institutions’ net buying shot up to 26.50% or QR75.91mn. A much higher 41.56% of them were into buying compared to 19.51% the previous day, while a lower 15.06% of them into selling against 16.10%.

Foreign institutions’ net buying sunk to 5.96% or QR17.07mn. A much lower 20.84% of them bought equities compared to 32.85% last Thursday and a lower 14.88% offloaded against 23.11%.

Total trading volume rose 3% to 4.99mn shares and value by 33% to QR286.44mn, but deals were down 6% to 2,953.

The real estate sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 1mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR19.19mn on a 54% jump in transactions to 386.

The insurance sector’s trading volume surged 70% to 0.17mn shares, value by 78% to QR8.50mn and deals by 22% to 143.

The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume was up 5% to 2.28mn shares and value by 52% to QR147.15mn, whereas transactions fell 16% to 990.

However, the consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume plummeted 42% to 0.21mn shares, value by 27% to QR27.38mn and deals by 15% to 446.

The industrials sector’s trading volume plunged 15% to 0.66mn shares, while value rose 22% to QR51.84mn but transactions shrank 17% to 533.

The transport sector’s trading volume tanked 15% to 0.34mn shares, whereas value rose 35% to QR10.36mn and deals by 1% to 204.

The telecom sector’s trading volume declined 15% to 0.33mn shares, while value gained 36% to QR22.02mn and transactions by 4% to 251.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were QNB (672,851 shares); Masraf Al Rayan (655,549); GIS (396,059); Barwa (392,257) and Mazaya Qatar (322,109).