By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday snapped two days of bullish run and its key index lost a marginal six points, mainly dragged by the insurance, telecom, transport and industrials stocks.
Gulf individual investors turned net sellers and there were lower buying interests of foreign institutions as the 20-stock Qatar Index was down 0.06% to 11,715.21 points on lower overall trade volumes.
There was also higher net selling pressure from domestic institutions and lower net buying support from their Gulf counterparts in the market, which is down 4.64% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting slower than the other indices in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate and telecom sectors, which together constituted about 48% of the volume.
Market capitalisation was down 0.17% or more than QR1bn to QR612.9bn with mid, small and large cap equities dropping 0.77%, 0.68% and 0.18% respectively.
The Total Return Index was down 0.06% to 18,209.61 points, All Share Index by 0.09% to 3,111.44 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.03% to 4,444.93 points.
Insurance stocks plunged 1.9%, telecom (0.91%), transport (0.42%), industrials (0.4%) and banks and financial services (0.16%); while realty and consumer goods gained 1.32% and 0.01% respectively.
Major losers included Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank and Alijarah Holding; even as Ezdan, Doha Bank and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened to QR24.22mn compared to QR32.3mn on October 26.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net buying also declined to QR7.04mn against QR8.44mn on Monday.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking strengthened to QR31.12mn compared to QR14.38mn the previous day.
The GCC individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR2.32mn against net buyers of QR5.39mn on October 26.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR8.7mn compared with net sellers of QR24.15mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking declined to QR6.5mn against QR7.6mn the previous day.
Total trade volume was down 9% to 5.61mn shares, value by 22% to QR224.84mn (excluding rights to subscribe in the rights issue) and deals by 26% to 3,365.
The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 55% to 0.51mn equities, value by 59% to QR34.32mn and transactions by 53% to 466.
The banks and financial services sector reported 47% plunge in trade volume to 0.81mn stocks, 40% in value to QR66.43mn and 41% in deals to 981.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 25% to 1.54mn shares, value by 5% to QR45.78mn and transactions by 8% to 707.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 0.73mn equities and value more than doubled to QR25.77mn on more than doubled deals to 460.
The telecom sector saw 73% surge in trade volume to 1.14mn stocks and 29% in value to QR18.44mn but on 35% shrinkage in transactions to 290.
The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 63% to 0.13mn shares, value by 56% to QR11.63mn and deals by 15% to 153.
The market witnessed 60% expansion in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.75mn equities and 39% in value to QR22.46mn but on 16% decline in transactions to 308.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
