By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
Qatar Stock Exchange opened the week with a substantial 113 points plunge, mainly dragged by industrials, insurance, banking and real estate stocks.
Lower net buying support from domestic and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions led the 20-stock Qatar Index lose 0.93% to 12,008.01 points as trade volumes were also on the decline.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting slower than the other indices in the market, which is down 2.26% year-to-date.
Mid and large cap equities bore the maximum brunt in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate and banking sectors, whose stocks together constituted more than 64% of the overall trading volume.
Market capitalisation shed 0.97% or more than QR6bn to QR639.11bn with mid, large, small and micro cap equities losing 1.21%, 0.88%, 0.53% and 0.52% respectively.
The Total Return Index fell 0.93% to 18,664.73 points, All Share Index by 0.92% to 3,210.84 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.65% to 4,671.53 points.
Industrials stocks shrank 1.13%, insurance (1.06%), banks and financial services (0.96%), realty (0.94%), consumer goods (0.69%) and transport (0.65%); while telecom rose 0.22%.
About 79% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being QNB, Industries Qatar, Ezdan, United Development Company, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, QIIB, Islamic Holding Group, Widam Food, Gulf International Services and Nakilat; whereas Ooredoo and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices bucked the trend.
Domestic institutions’ net buying substantially weakened to QR0.21mn compared to QR32.32mn last Thursday.
The GCC institutions’ net buying also weakened to QR1.8mn against QR6.6mn the previous trading day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying declined to QR1.73mn compared to QR5.12mn on July 2.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR6.88mn against net sellers of QR16.48mn last Thursday.
The GCC retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.41mn compared to QR3.14mn the previous trading day.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking further weakened to QR11.04mn against QR24.43mn on July 2.
Total trade volume fell 42% to 2.6mn shares, value by 57% to QR97.68mn and deals by 31% to 1,712.
There was 80% plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.01mn equities, 92% in value to QR0.39mn and 74% in transactions to 13.
The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 70% to 0.08mn stocks, value by 70% to QR2.05mn and deals by 5% to 63.
The market witnessed 65% shrinkage in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.27mn shares, 49% in value to QR8.52mn and 43% in transactions to 176.
The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 54% to 0.19mn equities, value by 67% to QR9.76mn and deals by 29% to 374.
The banks and financial services sector reported 37% decline in trade volume to 0.73mn stocks, 67% in value to QR32.85mn and 44% in transactions to 433.
The real estate sector’s trade volume shrank 37% to 0.94mn shares, value by 42% to QR32.23mn and deals by 39% to 266.
However, the telecom sector saw 5% expansion in trade volume to QR0.39mn equities, 7% in value to QR11.89mn and 21% in transactions to 387.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
