A substantially weaker buying support from domestic institutions and bearish outlooks from their Gulf counterparts rather limited the 20-stock Qatar Share’s rally to mere 0.05% or five points to 10,709.47 points.
Amidst overall marginal bullish sentiments, the industrials, telecom and realty counters witnessed higher-than-average buying interests in the bourse, which reported 2.61% gains year-to-date.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster than the conventional ones in the market, where buying thrust largely came from microcap equities.
Trade turnover declined amid higher volumes in the bourse, where banking, real estate and telecom sectors together accounted for more than 86% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation was up QR17mn, or 0.03%, to QR576.3bn with micro, small and large cap equities adding 0.96%, 0.21% and 0.03%, while midcaps fell 0.18%.
The Total Return Index rose 0.05% to 17,327.22 points, the All Share Index by 0.04% to 2,937.94 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.11% to 3,978.9 points.
The industrials sector saw its index expand 0.26%, followed by telecom (0.14%), realty (0.13%) and insurance (0.03%), while transport declined 0.61%, consumer goods (0.05%) and banks and financial services (0.01%).
About 54% of the stocks extended gains with major gainers being Alijarah Holding, Aamal Company, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Ezdan, Ooredoo, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank and Qatari Investors Group.
Nevertheless, Masraf Al Rayan, Milaha, Gulf Warehousing, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices saw their stocks lose sheen.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened considerably to QR27.66mn compared to QR11.1mn the previous day.
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors were net buyers to the extent of QR1.04mn.
Local retail investors’ net profit-booking fell marginally to QR32.44mn against QR32.63mn on January 11.
However, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR1.63mn compared with net buyers of QR1.13mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened substantially to QR10.02mn against QR24.38mn on January 11.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling increased to QR4.65mn compared to QR3.94mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume rose 21% to 7.91mn shares, while value fell 11% to QR183.19mn but deals were up 6% to 2,853.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 94% surge in trade volume to 3.91mn equities, 12% in value to QR71.05mn and 12% in transactions to 1,139.
The industrials sector’s trade volume gained 5% to 0.78mn stocks, while value shrank 11% to QR52.55mn but on a 9% jump in deals to 597.
However, the transport sector reported a 53% plunge in trade volume to 0.07mn shares, 36% in value to QR2.73mn and 10% in transactions to 92.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 17% to 1.44mn equities, value by 18% to QR17.3mn and deals by 14% to 214.
There was a 16% shrinkage in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.16mn stocks, 47% in value to QR9.5mn and 5% in transactions to 231.
The market witnessed a 10% decline in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.48mn shares and 28% in value to QR25.76m but on a 9% expansion in deals to 467.
Although the insurance sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.07mn equities, value rose 3% to QR4.31mn and transactions by 16% to 113.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.