By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Qatar Stock Exchange opened the week strong, gaining 15 points for the second day to inch near the 11,900 level, mainly lifted by real estate and industrials stocks.

Buying support, especially from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions, helped the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.13% to 11,896.02 points amid shrinkage in overall trade volumes.

Small and micro cap equities witnessed higher buying interests in the market, which is, however, down 3.17% year-to-date.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate sector, whose stocks together constituted about 45% of the overall trading volume.

Market capitalisation rose 0.1% or QR63mn to QR632.78bn with small, micro and large cap equities gaining 0.3%, 0.15% and 0.06%; while mid caps fell 0.15%.

The Total Return Index gained 0.13% to 18,490.65 points, All Share Index by 0.09% to 3,183.83 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.18% to 4,612.63 points.

Realty stocks rose 0.52%, industrials (0.26%), transport (0.23%) and consumer goods (0.12%); while telecom shrank 0.73%, insurance (0.23%) and banks and financial services (0.08%).

About 54% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, Ezdan Real Estate, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Commercial Bank, Qatari Investors Group, Aamal Company, Nakilat and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices Ooredoo; even as Ooredoo, Qatar Islamic Bank and Gulf International Services bucked the trend.

The GCC institutions’ net buying increased to QR13.93mn compared to QR6.6mn the previous day.

The GCC retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.23mn against net sellers of QR1.61mn last Thursday.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking weakened to QR9.26mn compared to QR10.58mn on July 9.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling decreased to QR0.64mn against QR2.21mn the previous day.

However, local retail investors’ net profit booking increased to QR10.46mn compared to QR2.3mn last Thursday.

Domestic institutions’ net buying fell to QR6.21mn against QR10.07mn on July 9.

Total trade volume fell 59% to 2.43mn shares, value by 62% to QR113.09mn and deals by 27% to 1,908.

The transport sector saw 79% plunge in trade volume to 0.06mn equities and 79% in value to QR1.37mn but on 44% rise in transactions to 65.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 76% to 0.15mn stocks, value by 73% to QR4.3mn and deals by 20% to 130.

There was 67% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.09mn shares, 70% in value to QR42.34mn and 57% in transactions to 387.

The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 67% to 0.01mn equities, value by 79% to QR0.64mn and deals by 29% to 24.

The market witnessed 44% decline in the telecom sector’s trade volume to QR0.19mn stocks, 66% in value to QR3.71mn and 57% in transactions to 131.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume decreased 31% to 0.5mn shares, value by 56% to QR30.58mn and deals by 6% to 556.

The industrials sector witnessed 23% fall in trade volume to 0.44mn equities and 39% in value to QR30.13mn but on 8% jump in transactions to 615.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.