Snapping five consecutive days of bearish spell, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday gained a robust 125 points to inch near the 9,900 levels, mainly on strong buying interests of foreign institutions.
An across- the-board-buying, particularly in telecom, insurance and real estate counters, helped the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 1.29% to 9,855.32 points on more-than-doubled trading turnover and volumes.
Micro and large-cap equities largely came under buying spotlight in the market, which is, however, down 5.5% year-to-date.
Local and Gulf retail investors’ buying support also helped the bourse, where banking, industrials and realty stocks together constituted more than 71% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation shot up 1.09%, or about QR6bn, to QR531.31bn with micro, large, small and midcap equities gaining 1.3%, 1.16%, 1.09% and 1.06% respectively.
The Total Return Index gained 1.29% to 15,945.25 points, the All Share Index by 1.2% to 2,752.79 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.39% to 3,852.91 points.
Telecom stocks soared 3.77%, followed by insurance (2.83%), real estate (1.69%), consumer goods (1.14%), transport (0.83%), industrials (0.76%) and banks and financial services (0.74%).
About 71% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Ooredoo, Gulf International Services, Qatari Investors Group, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Insurance, Vodafone Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Nakilat, Industries Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan, QNB and Alijarah Holding; even as Doha Bank and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR24.8mn against net sellers of QR0.44mn on Sunday.
Local retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR1.3mn compared with net sellers of QR1.89mn on May 8.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying increased to QR6.14mn against QR2.45mn the previous day.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR20.58mn compared with net buyers of QR3.96mn on Sunday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling strengthened to QR4.63mn against QR3.93mn on May 8.
The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking increased to QR7mn compared to QR0.16mn the previous day.
Total trade volume more than doubled to 7.83mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR308.49mn on more than doubled deals to 5,241.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume grew five-fold to 0.85mn equities and value by about eight-fold to QR58.09mn on almost quadrupled transactions to 752.
The insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.12mn stocks and value almost tripled to QR9.03mn on 74% jump in deals to 132.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.57mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR71.38mn on 54% expansion in transactions to 990.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 2.87mn equities and value more than doubled to QR95.61mn on more than doubled deals to 1,662.
The real estate sector saw 88% surge in trade volume to 1.05mn stocks to more than double value to QR21.98mn on 89% increase in transactions to 637.
The transport sector’s trade volume soared 79% to 0.84mn shares, value more than doubled to QR33.31mn and deals also more than doubled to 436.
There was 53% increase in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.52mn equities to more than triple value to QR19.08mn on more than doubled transactions to 632.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.