By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
Ahead of Eid al-Adha holidays, the Qatar Stock Exchange gained 111 points on Monday on the back of buying interests, especially in real estate, telecom and insurance equities.
Increased net buying support from both domestic and foreign institutions helped the 20-stock Qatar Index settle 0.98% higher at 11,465.35 points on higher overall volumes.
Nevertheless non-Qatari individuals turned bearish and there was higher selling pressure among local and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) retail investors in the market, which is down 6.68% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining slower than the other indices in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate and industrials sectors, whose stocks together constituted more than 59% of the trading volume.
Market capitalisation rose 0.85%, or more than QR5bn, to QR604.47bn with micro, large, mid and small cap equities gaining 0.77%, 0.76%, 0.52% and 0.28% respectively.
The Total Return Index rose 0.98% to 17,821.24 points, the All Share Index by 0.89% to 3,049.82 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.76% to 4,335.46 points.
Realty stocks appreciated 2.2%, followed by telecom (1.55%), insurance (1.12%), consumer goods (0.69%), industrials (0.64%) and banks and financial services (0.58%); while transport fell 0.26%.
About 71% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Ezdan, Barwa, Ooredoo, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Doha Bank, QNB and Commercial Bank; whereas Nakilat bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR15.42mn compared to QR2.15mn on September 20.
Domestic institutions’ net buying increased to QR12.75mn against QR0.96mn the previous day.
However, non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR6.99mn compared with net buyers of QR6mn on Sunday.
Local retail investors’ net selling strengthened to QR8.32mn against QR5.9mn on September 20.
GCC institutions’ net profit-booking also rose to QR9.6mn compared to QR1.75mn the previous day.
GCC individual investors’ net selling expanded to QR3.25mn against QR1.43mn on Sunday.
Total trade volume rose 14% to 4.37mn shares, while value was down 3% to QR174.85mn. Deals gained 16% to 3,080.
The real estate sector saw a 66% surge in trade volume to 1.54mn equities, 33% in value to QR32.2mn and 65% in transactions to 709.
The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 51% to 1.04mn stocks and value by 41% to QR54.82mn, while deals fell 2% to 894.
The market witnessed a 41% expansion in the telecom sector’s trade volume to QR0.72mn shares, 26% in value to QR21.49mn and 27% in transactions to 468.
The transport sector’s trade volume increased 33% to 0.12mn equities and value by 90% to QR4.38mn on more than doubled deals to 160.
However, the banks and financial services sector reported a 46% plunge in trade volume to 0.79mn stocks, 42% in value to QR47.01mn and 5% in transactions to 611.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 9% to 0.1mn shares and value by 14% to QR11.18mn, while deals grew 14% to 182.
Although the insurance sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.06mn equities, there as a 1% gain in value to QR3.77mn; even as transactions shrank 19% to 56.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
Eid al-Adha holidays
The Qatar Stock Exchange will remain closed from Wednesday (September 23) in view of Eid al-Adha holidays.
The market will resume trading on Tuesday, September 29, a bourse spokesman said in a communiqué.
This is based on the instructions received from the Qatar Financial Markets Authority.
