The Qatar Stock Exchange saw local and foreign retail investors turn bullish amidst a fifth straight-session fall to less than 7,900 points.
An across-the-board selling, particularly in the insurance and telecom, led the 20-stock Qatar Index lose another 0.94% to 7,856.24 points.
Foreign funds turned bearish and there was increased net selling by their Gulf counterparts in the market, whose year-to-date losses were at 24.73%.
Islamic equities fell slower than other indices on the bourse, whose capitalisation declined 1.05% to QR424.85bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the market, where banking and industrials sectors together accounted for about 54% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index shed 0.94% to 13,174.45 points, All Share Index fell 1.04% to 2,175.33 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.69% to 3,009 points.
The insurance index tanked 4.22%, telecom (2.06%), transport (1.95%), realty (1.85%), consumer goods (1.21%), industrials (0.44%) and banks and financial services (0.41%).
Major gainers included Al Khaliji, Qatar First Bank, Islamic Holding Group, Qatar National Cement, Qatari Investors Group, Aamal Holding and Nakilat; even as Qatar Insurance, Commercial Bank, Doha bank, Barwa, Ezdan, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Milaha, Salam International Investment, Widam Food and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR5.04mn compared with net buyers of QR38.39mn on November 7.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) fund’ net selling increased to QR6.85mn against QR2.59mn on Tuesday.
The GCC retail investors’ net profit booking increased to QR1.24mn compared to QR0.6mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net buying declined perceptibly to QR10.1mn against QR17.61mn on November 7.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.88mn compared with net sellers of QR42.95mn on Tuesday.
Non-Qatari individual investors were net buyers to the extent of QR2.17mn against net profit takers of QR9.86mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 46% to 4.59mn shares, value by 49% to QR138.97mn and deals by 42% to 2,299.
There was 62% plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.05mn equities, 50% in value to QR2.01mn and 73% in transactions to 26.
The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 58% to 1.14mn stocks, value by 23% to QR33.45mn and deals by 31% to 650.
The transport sector saw 55% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.47mn shares, 38% in value to QR19.37mn and 74% in transactions to 115.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume tanked 53% to 1.33mn equities, value by 59% to QR61.23mn and deals by 41% to 855.
The telecom sector reported 18% decline in trade volume to 0.46mn stocks, 41% in value to QR6.33mn and 8% in transactions to 283.
The real estate sector’s trade volume shrank 16% to 0.87mn shares, value by 49% to QR9.71mn and deals by 60% to 175.
However, the market witnessed 23% surge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.27mn equities but on 59% slump in value to QR6.86mn and 32% in transactions to 195.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills; even as a total of 50,000 sovereign bonds valued at QR497.5mn changed hands across one deal.
