By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
The Qatar Stock Exchange continued to remain on the positive trajectory for the second day on Tuesday and its key index gained another 47 points to inch near the 9,800 level, mainly lifted by insurance, transport and banking stocks.
Local and Gulf retail investors turned bullish as the 20-stock Qatar Index added 0.48% to 9,789.8 points.
Lower net selling pressure from Gulf institutions and non-Qatari individual investors also helped the market, which is, however, down 20.32% year-to-date.
However, buying interests from both domestic and foreign institutions were seen weakening in the bourse, where overall volumes were on the decline.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining slower than the other indices in the market, where the banking, transport and real estate sectors dominated the trading ring as their stocks accounted for about 76% of the volumes.
Market capitalisation rose 0.47%, or more than QR2bn, to QR517.5bn with large and mid-cap equities gaining 0.6% and 0.54%; whereas micro and small caps fell 0.46% and 0.22% respectively.
The Total Return Index gained 0.48% to 15,216.84 points, the All Share Index by 0.37% to 2,611.65 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.11% to 3,581.25 points.
Insurance stocks surged 1.02%, followed by transport (0.69%), banks and financial services (0.5%), industrials (0.37%), telecom (0.3%) and realty (0.07%); even as consumer goods fell 0.82%.
About 60% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, QNB, Ooredoo, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Gulf International Services, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Al Meera, Doha Bank, Commercial Bank and Milaha; while Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar, Mannai Corporation, Salam International Investment and Al Khaliji bucked the trend.
Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.28mn compared with net sellers of QR10.61mn on Monday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.66mn against net sellers of QR6.83mn on December 14.
The GCC institutions’ net profit-booking weakened to QR5.84mn against QR8.59mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling declined to QR0.1mn compared to QR4.02mn on Monday.
However, domestic institutions’ net buying fell substantially to QR2.11mn against QR25.76mn on December 14.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying also weakened to QR1.87mn compared to QR4.29mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 24% to 5.28mn shares, value by 33% to QR199.31mn and deals by 26% to 2,970.
The industrials sector saw a 60% plunge in trade volume to 0.53mn equities, 71% in value to QR29.35mn and 30% in transactions to 510.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 52% to 0.78mn stocks, value by 47% to QR21.04mn and deals by 50% to 379.
The market witnessed a 42% shrinkage in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.15mn shares; even as there was a 30% expansion in value to QR14.65mn. Transactions shrank 27% to 196.
The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 25% to 0.54mn equities, value by 20% to QR11.48mn and deals by 17% to 462.
There was a 17% decline in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.05mn stocks, 16% in value to QR3.09mn and 14% in transactions to 57.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume was down 6% to 2.36mn shares, value by 13% to QR96.94mn and deals by 26% to 933.
However, the transport sector saw an 83% surge in trade volume to 0.86mn equities, 44% in value to QR22.74mn and 18% in transactions to 433.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills but a total of 200,000 government bonds valued at QR2bn traded across 13 deals.
