Buoyed by buying interests, Index inches near 12,000 mark

By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business ReporterBuying interests – particularly in the consumer goods, banks and real estate stocks – Tuesday led Qatar Stock Exchange gain 62 points to inch near the 12,000 mark.Institutional investors’ buying support lifted the 20-stock Qatar Index 0.52% to 11,977.35 points as trade volumes also expanded.Small, micro and mid cap stocks notably outperformed the main index in the bourse, which is however down 2.51% year-to-date.Local and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) retail investors were, however, seen resorting to profit booking in the market; where overall trading volume was skewed towards banks, realty and consumer goods stocks, which together accounted for about 80%.Market capitalisation rose 0.67% or more than QR4bn to QR643.78bn with small, micro, mid and large cap stocks gaining 1.51%, 0.83%, 0.7% and 0.56% respectively.The Total Return Index gained 0.52% to 18,611.86 points, All Share Index by 0.65% to 3,202.35 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.59% to 4,524.86 points.Consumer goods stocks gained 1.69%, banks and financial services (1.1%), real estate (0.85%) and industrials (0.21%); while transport fell 0.8%, telecom (0.24%) and insurance (0.02%).About 67% of the stocks witnessed gains with major movers being Doha Bank, QNB, Industries Qatar, al khaliji, Alijarah Holding, Barwa, Ezdan, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar and Doha Insurance; even as Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Mazaya Qatar, Ooredoo and Milaha bucked the trend.Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR15.47mn against net sellers of QR5.22mn the previous day.The GCC institutions were also net buyers to the extent of QR8.84mn compared with net sellers of QR21.28mn on Monday.Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR22.62mn against QR19.57mn on April 20.However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR18.05mn compared with net buyers of QR12.05mn the previous day.The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking strengthened to QR20.59mn against QR0.68mn on Monday.Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling weakened to QR8.29mn compared to QR18.85mn on April 20.Total trade volume rose 26% to 8.89mn shares, value by 14% to QR368.37mn and transactions by 19% to 5,525.The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 3.52mn equities and value more than doubled to QR148.96mn on more than doubled deals to 2,151.The consumer goods sector saw its trade volume surge 41% to 1.59mn stocks, value by 24% to QR54.82mn and transactions by 1% to 727.The transport sector’s trade volume expanded 38% to 0.29mn shares, value by 21% to QR15.45mn and deals by 39% to 237.There was 30% jump in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.97mn equities and 21% in value to QR51.48mn but on 20% fall in transactions to 666.However, the telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 57% to 0.51mn stocks while value rose 6% to QR23.28mn and deals by 38% 484.The market witnessed 45% plunge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.87mn shares, 51% in value to QR64.43mn and 16% in transactions to 1,183.The insurance sector’s trade volume was down 7% to 0.13mn equities but value was up 7% to QR9.94mn. Deals shrank 43% to 77.In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.