Ezdan Holding, which will temporarily be taken off the indices following its proposed delisting, had its dampening effect on Monday on the Qatar Stock Exchange, which otherwise saw gainers outnumber decliners.
Increased net selling by Gulf institutions and local retail investors as well as Gulf retail investors’ bearish outlook led the 20-stock Qatar Index to shrink 0.11% to 10,112.39 points, which is down 3.11% year-to-date.
The market by and large was on a falling spree in the first 180 minutes, which saw the index touch a low of 10,040 points. But it witnessed some last minute strong buying interests to take the index above 10,100 points. However, overall the bourse settled 11 points lower against the previous close.
Islamic stocks were seen making gains vis-à-vis declines in the other indices in the market, which, however, saw increased buying support from domestic institutions and substantially lower net selling by their foreign counterparts.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where the banking, real estate and telecom sectors together accounted for about 90% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation however gained QR45mn, or 0.08%, to QR543.97bn as micro, large and midcap equities added 1.04%, 0.44% and 0.31% respectively.
The Total Return Index fell 0.11% to 16,957.87 points and the All Share Index by 0.01% to 2,867.68 points, while the Al Rayan Islamic Index gained 0.21% to 4,034.87 points.
The realty index plunged 2.6%, followed by consumer goods (0.16%) and insurance (0.05%); whereas telecom gained 0.89%, transport 0.74%, banks and financial services 0.62% and industrials rose 0.29%.
Major losers included Ezdan, Medicare Group, Mannai Corporation, Al Meera, Qatari Investors Group and Qatar Insurance.
Nevertheless, more than 73% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Qatar First Bank, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Masraf Al Rayan, QIIB, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Nakilat and Milaha.
Local retail investors’ net profit-booking strengthened perceptibly to QR39.48mn compared to QR25.84mn on Sunday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds’ net selling increased considerably to QR34.55mn against QR6.16mn on May 28.
The GCC individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR2.54mn compared with net buyers of QR0.96mn the previous day.
However, domestic institutions’ net buying grew influentially to QR83.19mn against QR58.13mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR1.59mn compared with net sellers of QR5.82mn on May 28.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit-booking weakened substantially to QR8.34mn against QR21.31mn the previous day.
Total trade volumes rose 75% to 14.94mn shares, value by 62% to QR362.49mn and deals by 56% to 3,492.
The insurance sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 0.14mn equities and value also almost tripled to QR9.47mn on a 5% rise in transactions to 61.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 8.85mn stocks and value almost doubled to QR196.88mn on more-than-doubled-deals to 1,531.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume doubled to 0.26mn shares, value soared 43% to QR14.71mn and transactions by 91% to 302.
The market witnessed a 27% surge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 2.37mn equities, 44% in value to QR41.92mn and 31% in deals to 726.
The transport sector’s trade volume expanded 24% to 0.73mn stocks, while value fell 3% to QR28.96mn but on a 30% higher transactions to 310.
There was a 19% increase in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.43mn shares, 80% in value to QR41.02mn and 20% in deals to 269.
The telecom sector’s trade volume was up 3% to 2.17mn equities, value by 3% to QR29.54mn and transactions by 18% to 293.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
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