The Qatar Stock Exchange continued to make gains and remain above 9,000 levels on the back of buying interests, especially in industrials, insurance and telecom stocks.

Both foreign and Gulf funds continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as the 20-stock Qatar Index added 0.51% to 9,048.17 points.

The non-Qatari individuals’ bullish outlook and the weakened net selling by local retail investors and domestic institutions helped the market, whose capitalisation grew 0.32% to QR497.47bn.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase on the bourse, where industrials, banking and real estate sectors together accounted for about 86% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index gained 0.51% to 15,173.24 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.06% to 3,653.43 points and All Share Index by 0.42% to 2,595.8 points.

The industrials index soared 1.64%, insurance (0.94%), telecom (0.51%), consumer goods (0.49%) and realty (0.33%); whereas transport declined 0.82% and banks and financial services 0.07%.

More than 59% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar First Bank, United Development Company, Barwa, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices.

Nevertheless, Milaha, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Ahli Bank, Alijarah Holding, Dlala, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Mazaya Qatar were among the losers.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying fell significantly to QR36.3mn compared to QR64.42mn on January 9.

The Gulf institutions’ net buying also declined considerably to QR2.15mn against QR9.32mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR3.56mn compared with net sellers of QR3.39mn on Tuesday.

The Gulf retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.6mn against net sellers of QR1.05mn on January 9.

Domestic funds’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR19.91mn against QR25.84mn the previous day.

Local individuals’ net selling weakened substantially to QR22.66mn compared to QR43.43mn on Tuesday.

Total trade volume rose 41% to 15.59mn shares and value by 19% to QR335.77mn, while deals fell 5% to 4,840.

The industrials sector reported 97% surge in trade volume to 5.38mn equities, 46% in value to QR79.37mn and 23% in transactions to 1,386.

The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 85% to 1.02mn stocks, value by 57% to QR11.4mn and deals by less than 1% to 254.

The banks and financial services sector saw 62% expansion in trade volume to 4.66mn shares and 32% in value to QR135.16mn but on 9% fall in transactions to 1,523.

The insurance sector’s trade volume shot up 11% to 0.1mn equities, value by 32% to QR5.18mn and deals by 41% to 124.

However, there was 23% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.69mn stocks, 21% in value to QR24.94mn and 31% in transactions to 303.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume declined 5% to 0.39mn shares, while value rose 1% to QR22.58mn and deals by 9% to 389.

The market witnessed 3% fall in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 3.35mn equities, 7% in value to QR57.15mn and 27% in transactions to 861.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills, even as a total of 25,000 sovereign bonds valued at QR248.88mn changed hands across two deals.

Related Story