QSE sinks below 10,000 on heavy selling pressure

Heavy offloading — especially in realty, industrials and banking counters — led the Qatar Stock Exchange to sink below the 10,000 levels.

Non-Qatari, local and Gulf retail investors turned bearish, and foreign institutions were increasingly profit takers, which led the 20-stock Qatar Index to plunge 1.16% to a fresh five-month low of 9,992.84 points.

The market was largely swayed by profit booking pressure for most part of the session with sharpest decline happing during the fag end, which led index touch below 10,000 points. Although there were some buying interests in the last minute, it was not strong enough to lift the sentiments that the market overall settled 118 points lower against the previous close.

Selling was largely skewed towards large cap segments on the bourse, whose year-to-date losses widened to 4.25%.

Islamic stocks were however seen declining slower than the main index as well as other indices in the market, where both domestic and Gulf institutions turned bullish.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase on the bourse, where real estate and telecom sectors together accounted for about 69% of the total volumes.

Market capitalisation eroded about QR7bn or 1.27% to QR534.61bn as large, mid and microcap stocks melted 1.24%, 0.54% and 0.39% respectively; while small caps were up 0.07%.

The Total Return Index shed 1.16% to 16,757.41 points, All Share Index by 1.11% to 2,839.43 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.61% to 4,022.61 points.

The realty sector’s index plummeted 1.89%, industrials (1.17%), banks and financial services (1.16%), transport (1.16%), telecom (0.86%) and insurance (0.06%), while consumer goods gained 0.35%.

More than 68% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being QNB, Industries Qatar, Ezdan, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Qatar National Cement, Milaha, QIIB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar Electricity and Water, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Barwa, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat and United Development Company.

Nevertheless, Doha Bank, Commercial Bank, Dlala, Medicare Group, Al Meera and Qatar Islamic Insurance were among the gainers.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net selling increased perceptibly to QR21.61mn compared to QR20.43mn on May 1.

Non-Qatari retail investors turned net profit takers to the tune of QR8.04mn against net buyers of QR6.91mn the previous day.

Local retail investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR5.63mn compared with net buyers of QR15.07mn on Monday.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR3.79mn against net buyers of QR0.63mn on May 1.

However, domestic institutions’ net buying strengthened considerably to QR38.21mn compared to QR2.32mn the previous day.

The GCC funds were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.89mn against net profit takers of QR4.49mn on Monday.

Total trade volumes rose 35% to 11.32mn shares, value by 58% to QR329.36mn and deals by 64% to 4,664.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 0.75mm equities and value more than doubled to QR36.7mn on almost doubled transactions to 523.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 3.46mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR138.75mn on almost doubled deals to 1,577.

There was 71% surge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 4.33mn shares, 68% in value to QR72.03mn and 38% in transactions to 854.

The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 60% to 0.24mn equities, whereas value fell 15% to QR6.64mn and deals by 31% to 65.

The transport sector reported 41% expansion in trade volume to 0.41mn stocks, 7% in value to QR13.62mn and 60% in transactions to 286.

The industrials sector’s trade volume shot up 26% to 0.86mn shares, value by 16% to QR46.31mn and deals by 59% to 1,027.

However, the market witnessed 51% plunge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.28mn equities and 45% in value to QR15.31mn but on 44% increase in transactions to 332.

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