By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday gained 28 points to inch near the 11,800 mark mainly on foreign institutions’ buying support.
Led by insurance, telecom, transport and industrials segments, the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 0.24% to 11,788.24 points amid dip in overall trade volumes.
Mid-cap equities witnessed buying interests in the market, which is, however, down 4.05% year-to-date.
Nevertheless, local and Gulf retail investors turned bearish and buying support from non-Qatari individual investors weakened in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the telecom, real estate and banking sectors, which together constituted more than 79% of the volume.
Market capitalisation was up 0.09% or QR53mn to QR618.52bn with mid cap equities gaining 0.85%; while small, micro and large cap equities falling 0.47%, 0.41% and 0.04% respectively.
The Total Return Index rose 0.24% to 18,323.12 points, All Share Index by 0.14% to 3,134.37 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.17% to 4,489.52 points.
Insurance stocks gained 1.76%, telecom (0.95%), transport (0.48%), industrials (0.35%) and realty (0.2%); while consumer goods and banks and financials services fell 0.65% and 0.28% respectively.
Major gainers included Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Nakilat, Gulf International Services, Qatar Electricity and Water, Industries Qatar, Barwa, Qatar Islamic bank and Doha Bank; even as QNB, Commercial Bank, Alijarah Holding, Qatar National Cement, Mazaya Qatar and United Development bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying considerably increased to QR22.38mn against QR1.72mn on Sunday.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking notably weakened to QR7.12mn compared to QR46.39mn on October 18.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR15.56mn against net buyers of QR33.73mn the previous day.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR4.62mn compared with net buyers of QR2.09mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying weakened to QR4.89mn against QR8.31mn on October 18.
The GCC institutions’ net buying also declined to QR0.03mn compared to QR0.6mn the previous day.
Total trade volume was down 3% to 12.25mn shares, value gained 10% to QR332.49mn (excluding rights to subscribe in the rights issue) and deals by 23% to 4,340.
The real estate sector saw 61% plunge in trade volume to 3.19mn equities, 56% in value to QR64.5mn and 32% in transactions to 826.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 53% to 0.35mn stocks but value rose 12% to QR23.22mn. Deals fell 18% to 292.
There was 45% shrinkage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.63mn shares, 36% in value to QR41.22mn and 1% in transactions to 795.
However, the transport sector’ trade volume grew more than six-fold to 1.49mn equities and value more than tripled to QR35.4mn on 87% expansion in deals to 343.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 4.98mn stocks and value also more than tripled to QR80.06mn on more than doubled transactions to 907.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.53mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR80.07mn on 96% surge in deals to 1,068.
There was 80% jump in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.09mn equities and 99% in value to QR8.02mn on more than tripled transactions to 109.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
