Robust buying interests of domestic, Gulf and foreign institutions on Tuesday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange by 77 points to inch near the 10,000 mark.

 An across the board buying – notably in insurance, consumer goods and industrials – led the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.78% to 9,969.25 points, after oil prices firmed overnight to hover around $37 a barrel.

 Both Gulf and non-Qatari individual investors also turned net buyers in the bourse, which is however down 4.41% year-to-date.

 However, local retail investors sought to book profits in the market, where trading turnover and volumes were on the rise.

 The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks gained slower than the other indices in the market, where banks, industrials, real estate and telecom stocks together accounted for about 88% of the total trading volume.

 Market capitalisation rose 0.92% or about QR5bn to QR530.51bn with mid, micro, small and large cap equities gaining 2.15%, 1.91%, 1.22% and 0.61% respectively.

 The Total Return Index gained 0.78% to 15,791.72 points, All Share Index by 0.88% to 2,709.7 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.74% to 3,678.55 points.

 Insurance stocks witnessed the maximum gains of 5.14%, consumer goods (1.88%), industrials (0.9%), transport (0.63%), banks and financial services (0.53%), realty (0.11%) and telecom (0,.04%).

 About 66% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Ahlibank Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan, al khaliji, Islamic Holding Group, Gulf Warehousing, QNB, Medicare Group, Widam Food, and United Development Company; even as Doha Bank, Commercial Bank, Ezdan and Al Meera bucked the trend.

 Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR24.98mn compared with net sellers of QR33.4mn the previous day.

 The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR28.56mn against QR2.02mn on February 29.

 Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying also increased to QR26.68mn compared to QR13.4mn on Monday.

 Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR2.29mn against net sellers of QR1.38mn the previous day.

 The GCC individual investors were also net buyers to the tune of QR0.36mn compared with net sellers of QR0.24mn on February 29.

 However, local retail investors turned net profit takers to the extent of QR82.7mn against net buyers of QR19.59mn on Monday.

 Total trade volume rose 32% to 13.34mn shares and value by 50% to QR606.3mn, while deals fell 20% to 5,196.

 The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 6.15mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR314.07mn but deals shrank 12% to 1,693.

 The industrials sector saw 51% surge in trade volume to 2.71mn stocks and 30% in value to QR121.28mn but on 3% fall in transactions to 1,274.

 The consumer goods sector’s trade volume surged 24% to 0.83mn shares, value by 76% to QR50.79mn and deals by 51% to 713.

 The telecom sector reported 7% increase in trade volume to 1.01mn equities and 24% in value to QR39.32mn but on 33% decline in transactions to 592.

 However, the insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 38% to 0.18mn stocks, value by 46% to QR9.3mn and deals by 61% to 119.

 The market witnessed 35% plunge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.82mn shares, 7% in value to QR51.16mn and 49% in transactions to 537.

 The transport sector’s trade volume tanked 35% to 0.62mn equities, value by 25% to QR20.39mn and deals by 46% to 268.

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

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