The Qatar Stock Exchange, which on Sunday revised the constituents in its indices, opened the week on a weak note and its key barometer settled near 8,300 levels.

Notwithstanding weakened net selling by foreign institutions, the 20-stock Qatar Index fell for the third straight session by 0.24% to 8,292.1 points.
Islamic equities were seen dropping faster than the main index and other indices in the bourse, whose year-to-date losses were at 20.55%.
There was weakening of buying support from domestic institutions and local retail investors in the market, whose capitalisation eroded 0.21% to QR453.64bn.
The market saw violent gyrations in the first 60 minutes with the index touching a low of near 8,260 points twice. Thereafter, there was occasional gains coupled with intermittent profit booking and overall the index settled 20 points lower.
Trade turnover and volumes on the increase in the bourse, where telecom, industrials and banking sectors together accounted for about 79% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.24% to 13,905.37 points, the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.49% to 3,366.84 points and the All Share Index by 0.44% to 2,359.63 points.
The industrials index gained 0.38%, whereas insurance fell 1.9%, consumer goods (1.82%), transport (1.32%), telecom (0.35%), banks and financial services (0.33%) and real estate (0.17%).
Major gainers included Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Gulf Warehousing, Ezdan, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Al Meera and Salam International Investment; while Qatar Insurance, Milaha, Al Khaliji, Masraf Al Rayan, Widam Food, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Mazaya Qatar and Barwa were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit-booking weakened influentially to QR6.11mn compared to QR50.58mn last Thursday.
Local retail investors’ net buying declined considerably to QR0.97mn against QR23.34mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net buying also fell perceptibly to QR9.05mn compared to QR26.4mn on September 28.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.55mn against net buyers of QR1.65mn last Thursday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling strengthened to QR3.01mn compared to QR0.56mn the previous day.
The GCC retail investors’ net profit-booking rose marginally to QR0.35mn against QR0.25mn on September 28.
Total trade volume fell 19% to 8.45mn shares, value by 3% to QR177.06mn and deals by 22% to 1,961.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 57% plunge in trade volume to 1.97mn equities, 19% in value to QR76.59mn and 46% in transactions to 617.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 50% to 0.09mn stocks, value by 35% to QR4.55mn and deals by 32% to 111.
There was a 15% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.32mn shares, 15% in value to QR17.89mn and 7% in transactions to 214.
The industrials sector’s trade volume declined 8% to 2.04mn equities, value by 5% to QR32.71mn and deals by 7% to 554.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.13mn stocks and value soared 83% to QR5.89mn but on an 8% fall in transactions to 61.
The market witnessed a 61% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 2.66mn shares to more than double value to QR34.18mn on an 86% expansion in deals to 272.
The transport sector’s trade volume was up 9% to 0.24mn equities, whereas value shrank 8% to QR5.25mn and transactions by 20% to 132.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

Related Story