Strong buying, particularly in the telecom, industrials and realty counters on Thursday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange for the second consecutive day.
Local and non-Qatari individual investors turned bullish as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 0.4% to 9,398.09 points.
The continued weakening of net selling pressure from Gulf institutions also helped the market, whose year-to-date losses were at 9.95%.
Islamic equities were however seen under-performing the main index and other indices in the bourse, which saw domestic institutions turned net profit takers and their foreign counterparts’ weakened net selling.
Buying was skewed towards micro and large cap stocks in the market, which also saw increased buying support from Gulf individuals.
Overcoming the initial mild selling, the market saw steep gains for a very brief period after which it was largely on a selling mode to take the index to a low of about 9,300 points within the first 150 minutes. Thereafter, buying interests sustained for the remainder of the session, thus helping the main barometer settle 38n points higher.
Trade turnover shrank amidst higher volumes in the market, where real estate, telecom and banking sectors together accounted for about 76% of the total volumes.
Market capitalisation gained 0.31% or about QR2bn to QR509.09bn as micro, large and midcap equities gained 0.59%, 0.41% and 0.15% respectively, while small caps fell 0.23%.
The Total Return Index rose 0.4% to 15,760.04 points, All Share Index by 0.3% to 2,678.59 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.23% to 3,758.4 points.
The telecom index gained 2.78%, industrials (0.96%) and realty (0.48%); whereas transport declined 0.93%, banks and financial services (0.1%), insurance (0.07%) and consumer goods (0.02%).
About 55% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Ooredoo, Qatar Electricity and Water, Qatar National Cement, Industries Qatar, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Gulf International Services, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and Widam Food.
Nevertheless, Nakilat, Woqod, Gulf Warehousing, Qatar Insurance, QNB, Vodafone Qatar, United Development Company and Dlala were among the losers.
Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR12.38mn compared with net sellers of QR23.13mn on August 2.
Non-Qatari retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR4.34mn against net sellers of QR0.99mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors’ net buying increased to QR0.24mn compared to QR0.05mn on Wednesday.
The GCC institutions’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR4.99mn against QR7.31mn on August 2.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR19.14mn compared with net buyers of QR15.15mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened considerably to QR7.33mn against QR16.25mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volumes rose 2% to 7.96mn shares, while value fell 17% to QR203.58mn and deals by 5% to 2,782.
The real estate sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 3.41mn equities and value almost tripled to QR50.11mn on 61% increase in transactions to 570.
The transport sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 0.44mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR13.82mn but on 8% fall in deals to 225.
However, there was 56% plunge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.52mn shares, 51% in value to QR17.35mn and 49% in transactions to 154.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 27% to 0.43mn equities, value by 58% to QR35.73mn and deals by 23% to 379.
The banks and financial services sector saw 19% shrinkage in trade volume to 1.1mn stocks and 26% in value to QR42.45mn but on 1% jump in transactions to 706.
The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 15% to 0.79mn shares, value by 4% to QR28.7mn and deals by 20% to 549.
The market witnessed 7% decline in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.26mn equities but on 7% expansion in value to QR15.43mn and 34% in transactions to 199.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
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