Year starts for QSE on a weaker note

By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business ReporterQatar Stock Exchange yesterday opened the year on a weaker note with its key index losing 0.46%, mainly pulled down by telecom and insurance stocks.Small and large cap equities witnessed the most selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) shrank 0.46% to 12,229.08 points as volumes also shrank.Domestic institutions’ reduced net buying was seen instrumental in the bourse, which is, however, up 0.46% year-to-date.Market capitalisation stood at QR673.48bn. Small and large cap equities melted 1.2% and 0.83% respectively; even as mid caps were up 0.01%.The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seem melting slower than the other indices in the market, where trade was highly skewed towards realty and industrials, which accounted for about 75% of the total trade volume.The Total Return Index lost 0.46% to 18,239.56 points, All Share Index by 0.49% to 3,135.71 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.34% to 4,087.61 points.Telecom stocks shrank 2.06%, insurance (1.45%), banks and financial services (0.73%), transport (0.29%) and consumer goods (0.15%); whereas realty and industrials were up 0.04% and 0.02% respectively.More than 64of the stocks were in the red with major shakers being Commercial Bank., Masraf Al Rayan, Islamic Holding Group, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat; even as Aamal Company and Ezdan bucked the trend.Aamal Company, Ezdan, Barwa and Masraf Al Rayan were among those stocks that topped the trading volume and value respectively.Qatari retail investors’ net selling sunk to QR5.58mn against QR37.8mn the previous trading day.Foreign institutions’ net profit booking fell to QR6.59mn compared to QR17.22mn on December 30.Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR3.05mn against net sellers of QR11.55mn last Wednesday.Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened to QR9.12mn compared to QR66.37mn the previous trading day.A total of 6.08mn shares worth QR194.45mn changed hands across 3,995 transactions.The real estate sector saw 2.52mn stocks valued at QR60.94mn trade across 1,052 deals.The industrials witnessed 2.02mn equities worth QR65.52mn change hands across 1,479 transactions.The market saw 0.86mn banks and financial services shares valued at QR46.99mn trade across 838 deals.The transport sector saw 0.33mn stocks worth QR7.89mn change hands across 141 transactions.A total of 0.24mn telecom equities valued at QR6.67mn trade across 310 deals.The consumer goods and insurance sectors saw 0.6mn shares each worth QR3.2mn and QR3.25mn change hands across 118 and 57 transactions respectively.In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.