By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter


The Qatar Exchange witnessed a bearish overhang for the second consecutive day with local retail investors resorting to profit-booking as the QR3.23bn Qatar Petroleum unit maiden offer closes for subscription today.
Real estate, industrials, telecom and transport counters witnessed more selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) settled 0.19% lower at 11,072.13 points.
However, foreign institutions were increasingly bullish on the market, whose key index has been remaining above 11,000 points for the sixth day in succession.
Small and micro-cap equities notably witnessed higher selling pressure in the market, which is however up 6.67% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen to under perform the other indices.
The 20-stock Total Return Index fell 0.19% to 15,819.53 points, the All Share Index (with wider constituents) by 0.19% to 2,739.4 and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.93% to 3,198.72.
All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Realty stocks sunk 1.66%, followed by industrials (0.98%), telecom (0.63%), transport (0.57%) and insurance (0.36%), while banks and financial services gained 0.63%. Consumer goods’ index was flat.
About 67% of the stocks were in the red with influential losers being Industries Qatar, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat, Qatari Investors Group and Qatar Insurance Company.
However, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank and Gulf International Services bucked the trend.
Market capitalisation eroded 0.17%, or QR1bn, to QR583.97bn. Small cap equities melted 0.89%, micro caps 0.62% and mid caps 0.3%, while large caps rose 0.22%.
Qatari individual investors’ net selling was QR83.26mn compared to QR34.4mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari institutions were net buyers to the tune of QR3.6mn against net sellers of QR0.19mn the previous day.
Foreign institutions’ net buying stood at QR66.99mn compared to QR16.27mn on Sunday.
Domestic institutions’ net buying was QR12.63mn against QR18.42mn the previous day. Total trading volume fell 31% to 8.93mn stocks, value by 11% to QR423.74mn and transactions by 17% to 4,698.
The insurance sector’s trading volume plummeted 65% to 0.18mn equities, value by 70% to QR11.51mn and deals by 55% to 139.
The telecom sector saw its trading volume plunge 58% to 0.73mn shares, value by 61% to QR11.13mn and transactions by 37% to 280.
The market witnessed a 54% shrinkage in real estate sector’s trading volume to 2.41mn stocks, 56% in value to QR47.3mn and 48% in deals to 669.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 19% decline in trading volume to 2.84mn equities, 3% in value to QR187.18mn and 10% in transactions to 1,725.
There was a 16% fall in consumer goods sector’s trading volume to 0.38mn shares; while value rose 73% to QR32.97mn. Deals were down 14% to 311.
However, the industrials sector’s trading volume surged 76% to 1.25mn stocks, value by 54% to QR102.14mn and transactions by 26% to 1,282.
The transport sector’s trading volume soared 38% to 1.16mn equities and value by 24% to QR31.53mn whereas transactions tanked 21% to 292.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills.

MPHC offer closes today

The QR3.23bn initial public offer of Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC) will close for subscription today.
The maiden offer from Qatar Petroleum (QP) unit has been receiving good response from local retail investors, who were seen to be net sellers throughout the offer, which opened for subscription on December 31.
QP, which offloaded a 26% stake to the public, offered 323.19mn shares at QR10.2 a piece (including QR0.2 listing fee).
MPHC - an umbrella entity for Q-Chem I, Q-Chem II and Qatar Vinyl Company – is expected to be listed on Qatar Exchange next month.
The IPO, which was primarily reserved for Qatari private individuals with minimum subscription at 50 shares and a maximum of 1mn, is expected to be oversubscribed, according to market sources.
Although Qatari private institutions or corporations were excluded, Qatar Foundation and the General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority had been allowed to partake in the subscription.
The maiden offer is part of QP’s 10-year investment and savings programme.