Selling pressure drags Qatar shares

By Santhosh V. Perumal Business Reporter

Selling pressure from retail investors, particularly non-Qataris, dragged the Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday, amid heightened trading. Severe profit-booking in consumer goods was witnessed as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) fell 0.19% to 12,525.88 points after two consecutive days of bullish run. Large-cap stocks suffered the most in the bourse, which is, however, up 1.97% year-to-date. Foreign institutions were increasingly net buyers in the market, where telecom, banks and real estate stocks together cornered more than three-fourth of the total trading volume. Market capitalisation fell 0.25%, or about QR2bn, to QR678.84bn mainly on a 0.5% fall in large cap scrips; even as small, mid and micro caps gained 2.05%, 1.67% and 0.32% respectively. The Total Return Index shed 0.19% to 18,934.32 points and the All Share Index by 0.31% to 3,261.92 points; while Al Rayan Islamic Index gained 0.37% to 4,459.76 points. Consumer goods stocks shrank 3.58%, followed by realty (0.44%), industrials (0.31%) and insurance (0.01%); while transport rose 0.41%, telecom (0.2%) and banks and financial services (0.01%). Major shakers included Woqod, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Ezdan, Barwa, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank and International Islamic; even as QNB, Doha Bank, Al Khaliji, Qatari Investors Group, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat bucked the trend. Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR15.37mn against net buyers of QR1.86mn the previous day. Qatari retail investors’ net selling surged to QR68.55mn compared to QR34.29mn on Monday. Domestic institutions’ net buying rose to QR28.71mn against QR13.78mn on Monday. Foreign institutions’ net buying also strengthened to QR55.27mn compared to QR18.7mn the previous day. Total trade volume rose 43% to 10.92mn shares, value by 39% to QR598.2mn and transactions by 17% to 5,707. The telecom sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 3.69mn stocks and value also almost tripled to QR73mn on more-than-doubled-deals to 866. The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.95mn equities and value almost tripled to QR127.31mn on -than-doubled-transactions to 1,047. The industrials sector saw a 70% surge in trade volume to 1.12mn shares, 41% in value to QR79.26mn and 32% in deals to 1,566. The banks and financial services sector reported a 36% expansion in trade volume to 2.78mn stocks and 54% in value to QR237.26mn but on a 13% fall in transactions to 1,193. However, the insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 52% to 0.32mn equities, value by 61% to QR18.37mn and deals by 61% to 163. There was a 22% decline in the real estate’s trade volume to 1.86mn shares, 44% in value to QR51.9mn and 19% in transactions to 725. The transport sector’s trade volume was down 9% to 0.21mn stocks, but value rose 11% to QR11.1mn and deals by 14% to 147. In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.