The Qatar Stock Exchange was back in the positive trajectory on an across-the-board buying, particularly at the realty, insurance and transport counters.
Foreign institutions and non-Qatari individuals were seen bullish as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 0.3% to 8,526points.
However, local retail investors turned bearish and there was increased net selling by domestic funds in the bourse, whose year-to-date losses were at 18.31%.
Islamic equities were declining faster than the main index in the market, whose capitalisation gained 0.46% to QR472.72bn.
Trade turnover was on the rise amidst lower volumes in the bourse, where the banking, real estate and industrials sectors together accounted for about 81% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index rose 0.31% to 14,297.61 points, the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.44% to 3,384.15 points and the All Share Index by 0.52% to 2,456.32 points.
The realty index gained 1.83%, followed by insurance (0.57%), transport (0.57%), telecom (0.47%), industrials (0.43%), consumer goods (0.23%) and banks and financial services (0.11%).
More than 57% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Ahli Bank, Al Khaliji, Qatar Islamic Bank, Medicare Group, Qatar Electricity and Water, Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo and Nakilat; even as QNB, Dlala, Salam International Investment, Gulf International Services and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR39.62mn compared with net sellers of QR2.79mn on December 27.
Non-Qatari retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.8mn against net profit-takers of QR2.59mn on Wednesday.
Gulf individual investors’ net selling weakened marginally to QR0.69mn compared to QR1.16mn the previous day.
However, domestic institutions’ selling increased considerably to QR36.91mn against QR9.07mn on December 27.
Local individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR9.65mn compared with net buyers of QR8.18mn on Wednesday.
Gulf institutions’ net buying declined perceptibly to QR6.59mn against QR7.45mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 31% to 7.39mn shares, while value grew 5% to QR189.95mn and deals by 7% to 2,992.
The insurance sector reported an 84% plunge in trade volume to 0.11mn equities and 79% in value to QR4.6mn but on an 8% jump in transactions to 120.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume plummeted 65% to 2.23mn stocks, value by 27% to QR70.06mn and deals by 21% to 960.
The consumer goods sector saw a 48% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.11mn shares, 61% in value to QR4.07mn and 24% in transactions to 130.
The industrials sector’s trade volume was down 6% to 1.74mn equities, while value more than doubled to QR60.12mn despite 3% lower deals to 645.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 0.92mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR12.44mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 408.
The market witnessed an 83% surge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 2.01mn shares to more than double value to QR32.15mn on an 85% expansion in deals to 569.
The transport sector’s trade volume soared 42% to 0.27mn equities and value by 39% to QR6.5mn, whereas transactions fell 5% to 160.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
