The Qatar Stock Exchange lost 99 points to settle below the 10,700 mark, mainly dragged by telecom and real estate stocks.
Stronger net selling by Gulf institutions and weakened buying interests of their non-Qatari counterparts led the 20-stock Qatar Index to settle 0.92% lower at 10,622.54 points, reflecting the Standard & Poor’s downward revision of Qatar’s outlook to “negative” from “stable”.
Selling was rather seen skewed within large and small cap equities in the market, whose year-to-date gains were contained at 1.78%.
Islamic stocks were seen falling slower than the main index in the bourse, where local and non-Qatari retail investors as well as domestic institutions however turned bullish.
Trade turnover gained amidst lower volumes in the market, where realty, banking and telecom sectors together accounted for about 77% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation eroded more than QR4bn, or 0.73%, to QR572.98bn as large, small, micro and midcap equities fell 0.89%, 0.88%, 0.58% and 0.1% respectively.
The Total Return Index shed 0.62% to 17,440.89 points, the All Share Index by 0.52% to 2,961.6 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.58% to 4,099.72 points.
The telecom sector saw its index decline 1.54%, followed by real estate (0.91%), transport (0.88%), banks and financial services (0.46%), industrials (0.39%) and insurance (0.13%), while consumer goods gained 0.46%.
More than 72% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Barwa, Ooredoo, Aamal Company, Qatar National Cement, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, QIIB, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar First Bank, Industries Qatar, Islamic Holding Group, Gulf International Services, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, Milaha, Gulf Warehousing and Nakilat.
Gainers included Commercial Bank, Medicare Group, Qatari Investors Group and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling strengthened to QR53.38mn against QR26.24mn on March 2.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying fell considerably to QR30.09mn compared to QR83.45mn the previous trading day.
The GCC retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR1.23mn against net buyers of QR0.54mn last Thursday.
However, domestic institutions turned net buyers to the extent of QR10.32mn compared with net sellers of QR31.19mn on March 2.
Local retail investors were also net buyers to the tune of QR9.22mn against net sellers of QR30.79mn the previous trading day.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR4.93mn compared with net sellers of QR5.57mn last Thursday.
Total trade volume fell 11% to 12.55mn shares; while value rose 2% to QR456.63mn on a 17% fall in deals to 4,622.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 40% plunge in trade volume to 2.76mn equities but on a 3% increase in value to QR148.41mn. Transactions shrank 28% to 1,545.
The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 37% to 0.72mn stocks, value by 31% to QR42.62mn and deals by 28% to 620.
There was a 36% shrinkage in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.44 shares, 42% in value to QR13.74mn and 40% in transactions to 387.
The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 31% to 1.39mn equities and value by 26% to QR16.71mn, whereas deals gained 22% to 292.
The market witnessed a 23% decline in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.68mm stocks and 34% in value to QR48mn but on a 10% jump in transactions to 644.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.09mn shares and value soared 54% to QR46.5mn, while deals more than halved to 63.
The real estate sector witnessed a 28% surge in trade volume to 5.47mn equities, 48% in value to QR140.64mn and 10% in transactions to 1,071.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
