Snapping three consecutive days of bearish run, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday saw its index gain marginally to inch near the 9,700 mark, mainly on foreign institutions’ buying support.
Led by consumer goods and realty sectors, the 20-stock rose 0.45% to 9,681.54 points as trading turnover and volumes also expanded.
The gains in the bourse came amidst fall in global oil prices after Iran disclosed that it has no plans to freeze output.
Lower selling pressure from Gulf individual investors and institutions also helped the market, which is however down 7.17% year-to-date.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining slower than the conventional ones in the bourse, where banking, real estate and industrials stocks together constituted about 68% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation rose 0.3% or more than QR1bn to QR521.21bn as mid, small and large cap equities gained 0.92%, 0.62% and 0.21% respectively; whereas microcaps were down 0.05%.
The Total Return Index gained 0.45% to 15,664.09 points, All Share Index by 0.4% to 2,711.04 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.38% to 3,809.28 points.
Consumer goods stocks appreciated 1.09%, realty (0.92%), insurance (0.55%), banks and financial services (0.52%) and transport (0.49%); while telecom and industrials fell 0.57% and 0.26% respectively.
About 59% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Barwa, Nakilat, Doha Bank, Dlala, Al Meera, Widam Food, United Development Company and Ezdan; even as Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ooredoo and Gulf Warehousing bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR5.42mn against net sellers of QR11.75mn on May 22.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying rose to QR1.71mn compared to QR1.65mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors’ net selling fell to QR1.05mn against QR2.6mn on Sunday.
The GCC institutions’ net profit booking also weakened to QR2.37mn compared to QR3.57mn on May 22.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR12.65mn against net buyers of QR0.31mn on Sunday.
Local retail investors’ net buying weakened to QR8.92mn compared to QR15.96mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 16% to 4.87mn shares, value by 31% to QR178.44mn and deals by 32% to 3,742.
The transport sector’s trade volume quadrupled to 0.52mn equities and value more than tripled to QR15.1mn on more than quadrupled transactions to 505.
The insurance sector’s trade volume doubled to 0.1mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR6.95mn on 39% jump in deals to 118.
The banks and financial services sector saw 45% surge in trade volume to 1.76mn shares, 70% in value to QR56.81mn and 49% in transactions to 997.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume soared 23% to 0.32mn equities but value fell 3% to QR13.25mn and deals by 14% to 229.
The telecom sector reported 5% expansion in trade volume to 0.62mn stocks, 21% in value to QR22.14mn and 54% in transactions to 808.
However, the industrials sector’s trade volume plunged 23% to 0.74mn shares but value gained 12% to QR46.7mn. Deals shrank 14% to 585.
The market witnessed 18% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 0.81mn equities and 19% in value to QR17.48mn but on 2% rise in transactions to 500.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.