The Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday settled below 10,600 levels, having seen its key index wipe off 393 points since Sunday.
Foreign institutions’ profit-booking pressure led the 20-stock Qatar Index to fall for the fifth consecutive day by 1.4% to 10,597.22 points with global prices remaining weak as increased drilling in the US cast shadow on the oil producers' agreed production cut that became effective from January 1 this year.
The industrials, banking and realty counters witnessed heavy selling in the bourse, whose year-to-date gains were contained at 1.54%.
Islamic stocks were, however, seen declining slower than the main index as well as conventional ones in the market, where lower buying support from domestic and Gulf institutions also played its part.
Gulf individual investors were also net profit-takers whereas their local turned bullish in the bourse, where mid and large cap equities bore the maximum brunt.
Trade turnover and volumes expanded in the bourse, where the real estate, banking and telecom sectors together accounted for about 84% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation eroded more than QR8bn, or 1.45%, to QR568.61bn as mid, large, micro and small cap equities lost 1.5%, 1.41%, 0.74% and 0.46% respectively.
The Total Return Index declined 1.4% to 17,145.6 points, the All Share Index by 1.35% to 2,908.8 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.1% to 3,978.23 points.
The industrials sector saw its index plunge 1.7%, followed by banks and financial services (1.66%), realty (1.5%), telecom (1.1%), consumer goods (0.96%) and transport (0.64%), whereas insurance gained 0.86%.
About 83% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Commercial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Ahli Bank, Ezdan, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Nakilat, Alijarah Holding and Salam International Investment, even as, Qatar Insurance, Zad Holding and Dlala were among the gainers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net selling increased substantially to QR62.43mn compared to QR28.33mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net buying declined perceptibly to QR13.72mn against QR20.69mn on January 30.
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net buying also fell to QR7.91mn compared to QR10.7mn on Monday.
GCC retail investors’ net profit-booking strengthened to QR4.01mn against QR0.16mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR36.44mn compared with net sellers of QR4.6mn on January 30.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying increased to QR8.38mn against QR1.69mn on Monday.
Total trade volume rose 41% to 8.67mn shares, value by 35% to QR247.23mn and deals by 13% to 3,535.
The transport sector’s trade volume grew almost five-fold to 0.51mn equities and value by more than five-fold to QR15.08mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 258.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 4.06mn stocks and value doubled to QR78.95mn on a 5% jump in deals to 735.
The industrials sector reported a 92% surge in trade volume to 0.69mn shares, 39% in value to QR36.21mn and 37% in transactions to 592.
The banks and financial services sector’ trade volume soared 28% to 1.84mn equities, value by 19% to QR80mn and deals by 10% to 1,334.
However, the market witnessed a 38% plunge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.36mn stocks, 25% in value to QR21mn and 6% in transactions to 297.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 27% to 0.11mm shares, value by 28% to QR8.44mn and deals by 9% to 176.
Although the insurance sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.09mn equities, there was a 3% increase in value to QR7.56mn but on 7% fall in transactions to 143.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
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