Robust buying in real estate and industrials counters on Wednesday extended the bullish run on the Qatar Stock Exchange for the fourth straight session and its key index surpassed 8,300 levels.
Stronger buying interests of foreign institutions and bullish grip of their Gulf counterparts as well as substantially weakened net selling by domestic funds helped the 20-stock Qatar Index gain about 1% to 8,333.84 points.
Islamic equities, however, under-performed on the bourse, whose year-to-date losses were seen at 20.15%. However, local retail investors turned net profit takers on the market, whose capitalisation grew 0.82% to QR452.83bn.
The market saw an initial decline taking the index to a low of about 8,200 points within the first 15 minutes after which it kept gaining for the next 30 minutes but only to see almost a cautious move for most part of the remaining session.
There were some last minute strong purchases which settled the market 81 points higher.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase on the bourse, where real estate, industrials and banking sectors together accounted for more than 82% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 0.99% to 13,975.36 points, All Share Index by 0.88% to 2,336.62 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.84% to 3,355.83 points.
The realty index soared 2.58%, industrials (1.23%), transport (1.03%) and banks and financial services (0.54%); while telecom declined 0.11%, consumer goods (0.09%) and insurance (0.07%). About 63% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, QIIB, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Barwa, Ezdan, United Development Company, Nakilat, Salam International Investment and Qatar Electricity Water; whereas Ooredoo, Dlala, Doha Insurance and Medicare Group were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened impressively to QR15.02mn compared to QR11.83mn on Tuesday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR2.17mn against net sellers of QR0.4mn the previous day.
The GCC retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.16mn compared with net sellers of QR0.13mn on October 10.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking weakened considerably to QR4.49mn against QR18.81mn on Tuesday.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR14.13mn compared with net buyers of QR4.54mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying weakened perceptively to QR1.26mn against QR2.98mn on October 10.
Total trade volume rose 37% to 8.22mn shares, value by 20% to QR146.71mn and deals by 35% to 2,890.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than eight-fold to 0.17mn equities and value by about 11-fold to QR8.48mn on almost tripled transactions to 95.
The real estate sector’s trade volume jumped almost six-fold to 2.34mn stocks and value more than quadrupled to QR27.77mn on more than tripled deals to 777.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 0.86mn shares, value soared 44% to QR10.1mn and transactions by 18% to 205.
The banks and financial services sector saw 9% expansion in trade volume to 2.12mn equities, 29% in value to QR50.05mn and 49% in deals to 938.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 57% to 0.18mn stocks, whereas value grew 10% to QR10.52mn and transactions by 12% to 166.
There was 44% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.25mn shares, 57% in value to QR4.35mn and 65% in deals to 129.
The industrials sector’s trade volume was down 8% to 2.3mn equities and value by 29% to QR35.44mn, while transactions were up 4% to 580.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
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