Stronger net selling by domestic institutions extended the bearish spell on the Qatar Stock Exchange to the second day as its key index fell below the 10,400 mark.

Investors’ weak outlook, especially towards insurance and banking sectors, dragged the 20-stock Qatar Index by another 0.13% to 10,389.96 points, as global oil prices also retreated.

Trade turnover and volumes otherwise witnessed robust expansion on the bourse, whose year-to-date losses widened to 0.38%.

Islamic stocks were, however, seen declining slower than the conventional ones in the market, where banking, telecom, realty and transport sectors constituted more than 87% of the total volumes.

A marginal increase in net profit-booking by Gulf institutions and non-Qatari individual investors also abetted the bearish pressure in the bourse, which saw micro and large-cap equities decline faster.

Market capitalisation was down 0.15%, or QR86mn, to QR558.12bn as micro, large and mid-cap equities fell 0.33%, 0.28% and 0.16% respectively; while small caps were unchanged.

The Total Return Index fell 0.13% to 16,810.27 points, the All Share Index by 0.15% to 2,866.12 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.08% to 3,901.41 points.

Insurance stocks shrank 0.74%, followed by banks and financial services (0.31%), consumer goods (0.11%), real estate (0.1%) and industrials (0.04%); whereas telecom and transport gained 0.71% and 0.36% respectively.

More than 57% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Qatar Insurance, Commercial Bank, QNB, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Barwa, Qatari Investors Group, United Development Company and Dlala; even as Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Aamal Company, Nakilat, Ezdan and Mazaya Qatar saw their stocks gain.

Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking strengthened considerably to QR23.52mn compared to QR3.93mn on October 12.

GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling increased to QR1.9mn against QR1.45mn on Wednesday.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling also rose to QR0.19mn compared to QR0.16mn the previous day.

However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened perceptibly to QR27.23mn against QR12.3mn on October 12.

GCC individual investors’ net buying strengthened to QR2.42mn compared to QR0.2mn on Wednesday.

Local retail investors’ net profit-booking declined to QR4.44mn against QR6.95mn the previous day.

Total trade volume more than doubled to 6.28mn shares and value doubled to QR190.43mn on a 26% rise in deals to 2,343.

The transport sector’s trade volume grew 19-fold to 1.14mn equities and value by more than 12-fold to QR27.6mn on a 38% jump in transactions to 131.

The real estate sector’s trade volume almost quadrupled to 1.22mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR23.04mn on a 52% increase in deals to 315.

The insurance sector’s trade volume tripled to 0.06mn shares and value more than tripled to QR4.7mn but on flat transactions at 58.

The industrials sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 0.55mn equities and value doubled to QR24.03mn on a 48% expansion in deals to 454.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.71mn stocks and value also more than doubled to QR74.92mn on a 53% surge in transactions to 780.

However, there was a 10% decline in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.18mn shares, 66% in value to QR5.63mn and 25% in deals to 228.

The telecom sector’s trade volume was down 7% to 1.42mn equities but value rose 2% to QR30.5mn; even as transactions fell 3% to 377.

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

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