By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Reflecting the seven-year low oil prices, Qatar Stock Exchange extended the bearish spell for the third consecutive session and its key index lost 78 points to settle a tad above the 10,000 mark.

Six of the seven sectors – especially transport, real estate, telecom and consumer goods – witnessed severe profit booking as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.77% to 10,018.84 points.

Foreign institutions continued to be net sellers in the market, which witnessed a marginal rise in overall volumes.

Local retail investors and Gulf institutions turned bearish in the bourse, which is down 18.45% year-to-date.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting faster than the other indices in the bourse, where the banking, realty, consumer goods and telecom sectors dominated the trading ring as their stocks accounted for more than 85% of the volumes.

Market capitalisation eroded 0.58% or more than QR3bn to QR528.46bn with mid, micro and small cap equities melting 2.56%, 2.45% and 0.87% respectively; while large caps rose 0.77%.

The Total Return Index shrank 0.77% to 15,572.85 points, All Share Index by 0.83% to 2,669.84 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.17% to 3,696.24 points.

Transport stocks plummeted 3.7%, realty (3.18%), telecom (2.72%), consumer goods (2.55%), insurance (1.52%) and industrials (1.24%); while banks and financial services gained 1.48%.

More than 60% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Nakilat, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, United Development Company, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Doha Bank, Islamic Holding Group, Alijarah Holding, Qatar Insurance and Doha Insurance; even as QNB, QIIB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan and Qatar General and Reinsurance bucked the trend.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking fell to QR98.23mn compared to QR100.04mn the previous day.

Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR18.3mn against net buyers of QR10.27mn on Tuesday.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions were also net sellers to the extent of QR1.33mn compared with net buyers of QR14.65mn on December 8.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking strengthened to QR6.73mn against QR4.19mn the previous day.

However, domestic institutions’ net buying increased to QR122.08mn compared to QR78.12mn on Tuesday.

The GCC individual investors’ net buying rose to QR2.54mn against QR1.26mn the previous day.

Total trade volume was up 1% to 8.89mn shares and value by 3% to QR391.03mn, while deals were down 3% to 5,006.

The transport sector saw 31% surge in trade volume to 0.89mn equities and 36% in value to QR24.77mn but on 9% fall in transactions to 344.

The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 27% to 1.24mn stocks and value by 17% to QR79.18mn, while deals shrank 9% to 899.

The market witnessed 1% jump in real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.86mn shares but on 8% decline in value to QR44.06mn and 12% in transactions to 808.

However, the insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 25% to 0.18mn equities, value by 36% to QR11.77mn and deals by 24% to 118.

There was 17% shrinkage in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.24mn stocks, 40% in value to QR8.49mn and 22% in transactions to 225.

The telecom sector’s trade volume declined 5% to 1.18mn shares and value by 1% to QR24.22mn, whereas deals grew 13% to 612.

The banks and financial services sector reported 5% shrinkage in trade volume to 3.32mn equities; while there was 5% expansion in value to QR198.53mn and 5% in transactions to 2,000.

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

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