QE snaps 7-day losing run, but volumes fall

By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

The Qatar Exchange (QE) yesterday snapped a seven-day bearish run as its main indices gained on buying interests from both domestic and foreign institutions.

Industrials, realty and telecom sectors were seen lifting the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) by 0.42% to 8,368.33 points amidst an overall fall in volumes.

The gains were pronounced in small and large cap segments in the market, which is up 0.11% year-to-date (YTD).

Major gainers included Industries Qatar (IQ), Barwa, United Development Company, Gulf International Services, Nakilat, Commercialbank, Doha Bank and Masraf Al Rayan; even as Ezdan Real Estate and Vodafone Qatar bucked the trend.

The 20-stock Total Return Index rose 0.42% to 11,952.33 points, the All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.34% to 2,128.32 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.24% to 2,533.74 points. All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.

Under the All Share Index category, the insurance index expanded 1.03%, followed by industrials (0.78%), real estate (0.76%), telecom (0.68%) and banks and financial services (0.05%), while that of consumer goods fell 0.47% and transport 0.21%.

Consumer goods, telecom, industrials, transport, banking and insurance sectors outperformed the key indices, gaining YTD 12.13%, 11.73%, 11.54%, 5.18%, 2.16% and 0.52% respectively; even as realty index shrank 5.54%.

Market capitalisation fell 0.20%, or QR90mn to QR460.09bn, although small and large cap equities gained 0.57% and 0.23% respectively. Mid caps fell 0.03%, micro caps were unchanged.

Micro and small cap equities have reported 5.54% and 1.11% declines YTD, whereas mid and large caps gained 1.26% and 0.17% respectively.

Of the 42 stocks, 18 advanced, while only 14 declined, two were unchanged and eight were not traded.

Domestic institutions’ net buying rose to 5.86% or QR10.70mn. A marginally higher 17.14% of them were into buying against 16.87% on Monday whereas a lower 11.28% of them into selling compared to 13.93%.

Foreign institutions’ net selling sunk to 2.42% or QR4.42mn. A higher 39.72% of them bought equities against 38.12% the previous day, while a lower 42.14% offloaded compared to 48.63%.

Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of 1.91% or QR3.49mn. A marginally lower 30.24% of them purchased equities against 30.92% on Monday, while a higher 32.15% sold compared to 26.71%.

Non-Qatari individual investors also turned net profit takers to the extent of 1.51% or QR2.76mn. A lower 12.91% of them bought equities against 14.09% the previous day, whereas a higher 14.42% sold compared to 10.72%.

Total trading volume fell 16% to 4.12mn shares, while value was up less than 1% to QR182.57mn but deals were down 6% to 2,992.

The transport sector’s trading volume plummeted 52% to 0.32mn shares, value by 40% to QR6.62mn and transactions by 29% to 167.

The telecom sector’s trading volume plunged 42% to 0.85mn shares, value by 19% to QR13.73mn and deals by 35% to 216.

The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume tanked 38% to 0.25mn shares, while value rose 17% to QR20.92mn but transactions shrank 19% to 219.

The industrials sector’s trading volume declined 24% to 0.65mn shares, value by 19% to QR68.54mn and deals by 2% to 1,117.

However, the insurance sector’s trading volume quadrupled to 0.08mn shares and value by more than five-fold to QR4.21mn on more than tripled transactions to 81.

The real estate sector’s trading volume expanded 56% to 1mn shares, value by 75% to QR21.87mn and deals by 14% to 375.

The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume gained 13% to 0.98mn shares and value by 23% to QR46.68mn whereas transactions were down 5% to 817.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Barwa (809,286 shares); Vodafone Qatar (786,122); IQ (360,328); Rayan (290,536) and Nakilat (276,922).

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills.