Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
The Qatar Stock Exchange Sunday treaded almost a flat path despite strong buying interests, especially in the telecom and insurance stocks, and its key index yet again failed to break the 12,000 mark.
Both domestic and foreign institutions were seen bearish as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled a marginal 0.04% lower at 11,982.65 points as trade volumes also shrank.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen unchanged compared to small corrections in the other indices in the bourse, which is down 2.47% year-to-date.
However, non-Qatari individual investors and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions turned bullish and net buying of GCC retail investors strengthened in the market, where real estate and telecom stocks accounted for about 69% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation was down 0.15% or about QR1bn to QR642.88bn owing to 0.26% fall in large cap equities; even as mid, small and micro caps were up 0.15%, 0.08% and 0.07% respectively.
The Total Return Index fell 0.04% to 18,620.1 points and All Share Index by 0.06% to 3,195.44 points but Al Rayan Islamic Index was unchanged at 4,467.5 points.
Banks and financial services stocks shrank 0.42%, industrials (0.16%), transport (0.14%) and realty (0.13%); whereas telecom gained 1.58%, insurance (1.36%) and consumer goods (0.57%).
Major losers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Commercial Bank, United Development Company, Milaha and Masraf Al Rayan; even as Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Qatar Insurance and Nakilat bucked the trend.
Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR27.62mn against net buyers of QR11.36mn last Thursday.
Non-Qatari institutions were also net sellers to the extent of QR4.59mn compared with net buyers of QR2.5mn on April 9.
However, non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR17.3mn against net sellers of QR15.77mn the previous trading day.
The GCC institutions also turned net buyers to the extent of QR7.9mn compared with net profit takers of QR3.55mn last Thursday.
The GCC individual investors’ net buying rose to QR5.3mn against QR3.68mn on April 9.
Local retail investors’ net buying weakened to QR1.68mn compared to QR1.77mn the previous trading day.
Total trade volume fell 33% to 9mn shares, value by 33% to QR306.2mn and transactions by 36% to 3,848.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 83% to 0.03mn equities, value by 83% to QR1.86mn and deals by 69% to 34.
There was 80% plunge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.26mn stocks, 64% in value to QR19.07mn and 64% in transactions to 309.
The transport sector’s trade volume tanked 69% to 0.14mn shares, value by 62% to QR7.15mn and deals by 54% to 103.
The market witnessed 45% slippage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 3.61mn equities, 39% in value to QR87.14mn and 39% in transactions to 1,041.
The banks and financial services sector reported 43% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.99mn stocks, 50% in value to QR47.24mn and 46% in deals to 717.
The industrials sector’s trade volume was down 3% to 1.38mn shares but value was up 9% to QR92.08mn. Transactions fell 13% to 1,122.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume surged 45% to 2.58mn equities, value by 2% to QR51.66mn and deals by 10% to 522.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
