Reflecting the weak sentiments elsewhere in the world, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday continued to remain under bearish spell for the third straight session, losing more than 186 points to settle below 8,700 levels.
An across-the-board selling – particularly in insurance, realty, telecom and banking – led to a 2.11% plunge in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 8,651.48points.
The bearish sentiments of foreign institutions were solely responsible for the drag on the bourse, which is however up 1.5% year-to-date.
Profit booking was particularly stronger in the large caps in the market, whose capitalisation eroded 2.82% to QR466.21bn.
More than 78% of the stocks were in the red on the bourse, where Gulf individuals’ net seeking weakened marginally.
Islamic stocks were seen declining slower than the other indices on the bourse, which however saw local retail investors as well as Gulf and domestic funds turn bullish.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the market, where banking, consumer goods and real estate sectors together accounted for more than 71% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index shed 2.11% to 14,508.03 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.11% to 3,483.38 points and All Share Index by 2.73% to 2,410.41 points.
The insurance index plummeted 5.19%, realty (2.03%), telecom (3.07%), banks and financial services (2.4%), transport (1.82%), industrials (1.78%) and consumer goods (0.51%).
Major losers included Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, QNB, Commercial Bank, Qatar Electricity and Water, Ezdan, Barwa, Gulf Warehousing, Milaha, Nakilat, Islamic Holding Group, Ahli Bank and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices; whereas Qatar National Cement, Gulf International Services, Qatari Investors Group and Medicare Group were among the gainers.
Non-Qatari funds turned net sellers to the tune of QR37.82mn compared with net buyers of QR19.71mn on February 5.
However, local individuals turned net buyers to the extent of QR26.74mn against net sellers of QR5.46mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions were also net buyers to the extent of QR4.84mn compared with net sellers of QR1.47mn on Monday.
The Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR4.57mn against net profit takers of QR7.71mn on February 5.
Non-Qatari retail investors were net buyers to the extent of QR1.93mn compared with net sellers of QR2.61mn the previous day.
The Gulf individual investors’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR0.27mn against QR2.42mn on Monday.
Total trade volume grew 30% to 12.79mn shares, value by 9% to QR296.83mn and transactions by 15% to 5,280.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume grew more than five-fold to 2.8 equities, value rose 47% to QR28.02mn and deals by 65% to 482.
The real estate sector reported 59% surge in trade volume to 2.76mn stocks, 79% in value to QR48.8mn and 21% in transactions to 1,007.
The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 17% to 1.92mn shares, value by 59% to QR65.34mn and deals by 50% to 1,192.
The market witnessed 9% expansion in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.08mn equities, 20% in value to QR20.49mn and 16% in transactions to 431.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 35% to 0.53mn stocks, value by 22% to QR16.88mn and deals by 12% to 389.
The banks and financial services sector saw 11% shrinkage in trade volume to 3.58mn shares, 20% in value to QR112.16mn and 5% in transactions to 1,652.
Although the insurance sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.12mn equities, there was 9% increase in value to QR5.14mn and 25% in deals to 127.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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