The delisting process-laden Ezdan Holding continued to bludgeon Qatar Stock Exchange, which on Wednesday plunged below 10,000 levels.
An across-the-board selling – particularly in real estate, insurance and industrials – dragged the 20-stock Qatar Index 1.61% to 9,901.38 points.
Opening the day weak, the market was consistently on a downward path with stronger profit booking being witnessed in the last few minutes, thus settling the index 162 points lower against the previous close.
Higher net selling pressure from both foreign and Gulf institutions acted as the drag in the bourse, whose year-to-date losses widened to 5.13%.
“Besides Ezdan factor, the rating downgrade had its fair share in dampening the overall sentiments,” an analyst with a leading brokerage house said.
Islamic stocks were seen declining slower than the main index as well as other indices in the market, which saw a marginally weakened net buying by domestic institutions.
Selling was skewed towards large and midcap segments in the bourse, which however saw considerable net buying from local retail investors.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the market, where banking, real estate and telecom sectors together accounted for more than 87% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation eroded more than QR9bn or 1.75% to QR528.55bn as large, mid, micro and small cap equities melted 1.53%, 1.45%, 0.79% and 0.15% respectively.
The Total Return Index shed 1.61% to 16,604.03 points, All Share Index by 2.07% to 2,769.87 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.98% to 3,970.4 points.
The realty index plunged 5.98%, insurance (4.4%), industrials (1.71%), banks and financial services (1.12%), transport (1.05%), telecom (0.69%) and consumer goods (0.2%).
More than 64% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Ezdan, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar First Bank, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Qatar Electricity and Water, Qatar Insurance, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo and Nakilat.
Nevertheless, Aamal Company, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Islamic Holding Group, Qatar German Company for Medical Devices and Medicare Group were among the gainers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking strengthened substantially to QR55.01mn compared to QR15.96mn on Monday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds’ net selling rose perceptibly to QR22.83mn against QR20.81mn on May 30.
Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened marginally to QR28.28mn compared to QR28.62mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors’ net buying increased considerably to QR47.93mn against QR14.75mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.83mn compared with net sellers of QR5.59mn on May 30.
The GCC individuals’ net profit booking declined marginally to QR0.19mn against QR0.95mn the previous day.
Total trade volumes rose 30% to 17.73mn shares, value by 47% to QR481.73mn and deals by 36% to 4,832.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.75mn equities and value more than tripled to QR70.22mn on more than doubled transactions to 643.
There was 83% surge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.99mn stocks, 46% in value to QR39.15mn and 33% in deals to 299.
The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 57% to 0.33mn shares and value by 55% to QR22.36mn on almost tripled transactions to 225.
The banks and financial services sector saw 38% increase in trade volume to 7.09mn equities, 53% in value to QR231.24mn and 38% in deals to 1,732.
The real estate sector’s trade volume shot up 29% to 5.45mn stocks, value by 6% to QR68.08mn and transactions by 19% to 1,304.
The consumer goods sector reported 20% jump in trade volume to 0.24mn shares but on 23% fall in value to QR11.11mn and 10% in deals to 216.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume declined 6% to 2.89mn equities, whereas value rose 9% to QR39.58mn and transactions by 15% to 413.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
Qatar index closed 162 points lower on Wednesday against the previous close.
