Qatar Stock Exchange opened the week on a stronger note with its key index surpassing 7,800 levels, mainly on the back of robust buying in the real estate, industrials and transport counters.
Buying support from Gulf and non-Qatari individuals largely drove the 20-stock Qatar Index up 0.7% to 7,827.71 points, after remaining weak in the previous three sessions.
Last week, global index provider MSCI said it has decided to continue using the local foreign exchange rates and not switch to the offshore rates for the Qatari riyal in its indexes until further notice.
The substantially weakened net selling by domestic funds also helped the market, whose year-to-date losses were at 25%.
Islamic equities were seen outperforming the main index in the bourse, whose capitalisation gained 0.74% to QR428.74bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the market, where industrials and real estate sectors together accounted for more than 61% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 0.7% to 13,126.61 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.28% to 3,070.47 points and All Share Index by 0.81% to 2,210.34 points.
The realty index shot up 2.39%, industrials (1.2%), transport (0.82%), banks and financial services (0.54%) and consumer goods (0.46%); whereas telecom and insurance fell 0.68% and 0.54% respectively.
More than 67% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Qatari Investors Group, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, QNB, Qatar First Bank, QIIB, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar, Industries Qatar, Milaha, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and Qatar Oman Investment; even as Qatar Islamic Bank, Ooredoo and Qatar General and Reinsurance were among the losers.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net buying increased perceptibly to QR2.31mn compared to QR1.87mn on December 7.
The Gulf retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.31mn against net profit takers of QR0.56mn last Thursday.
Domestic institutions’ net selling weakened considerably to QR0.41mn compared to QR14.04mn the previous trading day.
However, non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR2.42mn against net buyers of QR5.02mn on December 7.
The Gulf institutions were net sellers to the tune of QR0.63mn compared with net buyers of QR2.66mn last Thursday.
Local retail investors’ net buying declined influentially to QR0.83mn against QR5.08mn the previous trading day.
Total trade volume fell 35% to 5.89mn shares, value by 40% to QR108.13mn and deals by 23% to 2,637.
The banks and financial services sector saw 71% plunge in trade volume to 0.86mn equities, 65% in value to QR23.18mn and 50% in transactions to 541.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 41% to 1.22mn stocks, value by 38% to QR16.03mn and deals by 50% to 466.
There was 34% shrinkage in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.49mn shares, 35% in value to QR14.1mn and 40% in transactions to 195.
The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 34% to 0.45mn equities, while value gained 8% to QR9.41mn and deals by 60% to 465.
The market witnessed 20% decline in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.16mn stocks, 14% in value to QR8.1mn and 12% in transactions to 173.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume soared 29% to 0.31mn shares, while value shrank 7% to QR6.23mn despite 18% higher deals to 100.
The industrials sector reported 15% increase in trade volume to 2.4mn equities but on 25% decline in value to QR31.08mn despite 33% increase in transactions to 697.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
