Strong buying, especially in the telecom and industrials stocks, lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday, with its key index gaining 63 points to inch near the 10,400 level.
Foreign institutions’ increased net buying and the bullish outlook of their Gulf counterparts led the 20-stock Qatar Index to gain 0.61% to 10,376.2 points; even as crude price fell on rising US inventory.
Lower net selling from domestic institutions also helped maintain the bullish momentum in the bourse, which is however down 0.51% year-to-date.
Buying was seen intense among small and large cap equities in the market, where trading turnover and volumes were on the rise.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the market, where banking, industrials, transport, realty and telecom stocks together constitute more than 92% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation was up 0.61%, or more than QR3bn, to QR554.03bn with small, large, mid and micro-caps gaining 1.6%, 0.72%, 0.59% and 0.4% respectively.
The Total Return Index rose 0.61% to 16,721.16 points, the All Share Index by 0.57% to 2,881.97 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.79% to 4,061.95 points.
Telecom stocks soared 2.64%, followed by industrials (1.87%), transport (0.81%) and real estate (0.13%); whereas consumer goods fell 0.45%, insurance (0.1%) and banks and financial services (0.02%).
More than 56% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Qatari Investors Group, Ooredoo, Aamal Company, Nakilat, Qatar Insurance, Dlala, Doha Bank, United Development Bank, Mazaya Qatar and Widam Food; even as Gulf International Services, Commercial Bank and Islamic Holding Group bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR84.28mn compared to QR60.6mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.76mn against net sellers of QR9.08mn on Wednesday.
Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking weakened to QR13.43mn compared to QR21.03mn on March 30.
However, local retail investors’ net selling increased considerably to QR50.42mn against QR31.62mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the extent of QR12.4mn compared with net buyers of QR3.86mn on Wednesday.
The GCC individual investors net profit-booking increased to QR9.8mn against QR2.7mn on March 30.
Total trade volume rose 34% to 10.74mn shares, value by 52% to QR489.98mn and deals by 27% to 6,637.
The transport sector’s trade volume almost quadrupled to 1.66mn equities and value more than tripled to QR56.35mn on more-than-tripled transactions to 890.
The insurance sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 0.26mn stocks and value also more than tripled to QR19.11mn on a 49% jump in deals to 188.
The telecom sector reported an 86% surge in trade volume to 1.45mn shares, 85% in value to QR62.41mn and 65% in transactions to 1,506.
The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 43% to 2.03mn equities, value by 57% to QR127.76mn and deals by 9% to 1,309.
There was a 26% expansion in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.58mn stocks and 15% in value to QR26.05mn but on a 3% fall in transactions to 408.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume increased 22% to 3.29mn shares, value by 58% to QR164.3mn and deals by 22% to 1,770.
However, the market witnessed a 30% plunge in real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.49mn equities, 41% in value to QR34mn and 33% in transactions to 566.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
QSE
