The Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday remained almost flat despite profit-booking pressure in insurance, transport and banking shares.

Both foreign and Gulf funds continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled mere 0.03% lower at 8,520.21 points. QNB, Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan and Industries Qatar traded on special market.
Although local retail investors’ net selling weakened substantially, domestic funds as well as Gulf and non-Qatari individuals turned bearish in the market, whose year-to-date losses were at 18.36%.
Islamic equities were seen declining faster than the main index in the bourse, whose capitalisation fell 0.33% to QR471.3bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the market, where the industrials, banking and real estate sectors together accounted for more than 86% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index was down 0.03% to 14,287.88 points, the All Share Index by 0.48% to 2,449.19 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.11% to 3,344.06 points.
The insurance index shrank 2.8%, followed by transport (1.51%), consumer goods (1.02%), realty (0.68%) and industrials (0.52%); whereas telecom gained 0.36% and banks and financial services (0.08%).
Major gainers included QIIB, Qatar First Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Islamic Holding Group, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Vodafone Qatar and Industries Qatar; even as Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB, Dlala, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Qatar Insurance, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Gulf Warehousing and Milaha were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying declined influentially to QR13.97mn compared to QR51.39mn on December 19.
The Gulf institutions’ net buying weakened perceptibly to QR5.25mn against QR8.35mn the previous day.
Local individuals’ net profit-booking shrank substantially to QR6.1mn compared to QR87.67mn on Tuesday.
However, domestic funds turned net sellers to the tune of QR9.64mn against net buyers of QR24.46mn on December 19.
Non-Qatari retail investors were net sellers to the extent of QR3.05mn compared with net buyers of QR3.43mn the previous day.
Gulf individual investors turned net profit-takers to the tune of QR0.49mn against net buyers of QR0.12mn on Tuesday.
Total trade volume grew 16% to 23.3mn shares and value by 56% to QR609.96mn, while deals fell 16% to 5,650.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 10.02mn equities and value almost quadrupled to QR296.26mn but on a 7% fall in transactions to 1,718.
The insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.56mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR29.68mn but on a 66% decline in deals to 57.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 37% surge in trade volume to 6.24mn shares and 26% in value to QR197.05mn but on 5% slump in transactions to 2,005.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was up 2% to 3.78mn equities but on a 5% fall in value to QR47.53mn and 8% in deals to 1,035.
However, the telecom sector reported a 68% plunge in trade volume to 1.41mn stocks, 74% in value to QR11.06mn and 41% in transactions to 256.
The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 63% to 0.57mn shares, value by 69% to QR11.5mn and deals by 54% to 260.
There was a 35% shrinkage in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.72mn equities, 16% in value to QR16.88mn and 34% in transactions to 319.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.