Snapping 11 consecutive days of bearish spell, the Qatar Stock Exchange closed in the positive, mainly on strong buying support from domestic institutions.
The buying interests — especially in the transport and industrials counters — helped the 20-stock Qatar Index add 0.13% to 8,289.23 points.
There was increased buying support from non-Qatari individuals, and Gulf institutions turned bullish on the bourse, where Islamic equities were seen gaining faster than the main index.
Local retail investors’ net buying also marginally strengthened on the market, whose year-to-date losses were at 20.58%.
However, there was increased net selling by foreign institutions and Gulf individual investors in the bourse, whose capitalisation rose 0.27% to 452.75bn.
After an initial weakening, stronger bullish sentiments prevailed for the next 60 minutes, taking the index to a high of near 8,320 points, after which there was profit booking for the next 60 minutes, which led market touch a low of 8,260 points. The buying support then continued for the remainder of the session, thus settling the index 10 points higher.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the market, where banking, industrials and telecom sectors together accounted for more than 93% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index rose 0.13% to 13,900.54 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.26% to 3,334.44 points, while All Share Index was down 0.04% to 2,363.37 points.
The transport index gained 0.55%, industrials (0.48%), consumer goods (0.25%), banks and financial services (0.24%) and telecom (0.11%), whereas insurance and realty shrank 2.43% and 0.81% respectively.
Major gainers included Qatar First Bank, Woqod, Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Barwa and Vodafone Qatar; even as Al Meera, Ezdan, United Development Company and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.
Domestic institutions’ net buying strengthened influentially to QR18.64mn compared to QR4.7mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying increased perceptibly to QR2.44mn against QR0.94mn the previous day.
Local retail investors’ net buying rose marginally to QR6.46mn compared to QR6.06mn on September 18.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.58mn against net sellers of QR2.83mn on Monday.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net selling increased substantially to QR26.52mn compared to QR8.16mn the previous day.
The GCC retail investors’ net profit booking also increased to QR1.59mn against QR0.69mn on September 18.
Total trade volume rose 49% to 16.62mn shares, value by 29% to QR241.09mn and deals by 23% to 2,927.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume grew more than six-fold to 0.19mn equities and value by 10-fold to QR15.96mn on 54% increase in transactions to 151.
There was 90% surge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 5.52mn stocks, 77% in value to QR61.63mn and 7% in deals to 653.
The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 80% to 0.09mn shares, value by 22% to QR3.44mn and transactions by 51% to 110.
The telecom sector reported 78% increase in trade volume to 4.15mn equities and 80% in value to QR44.94mn on more than doubled deals to 347.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume expanded 51% to 5.83mn stocks, value by 6% to QR95.07mn and transactions by 18% to 1,051.
However, the real estate sector saw 69% plunge in trade volume to 0.43mn shares and 58% in value to QR7.43mn but on 22% jump in deals to 276.
The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 28% to 0.39mn equities and 17% in value to QR12.61mn, while transactions were up 9% to 339.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
