Riding on the wave of higher foreign ownership limits by certain constituents and robust first quarter financial performance, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday gained more than 97 points to surpass 9,000 levels.
Foreign institutions’ substantially strengthened buying interests lifted the 20-stock Qatar Index for the third straight session by 1.08% to 9,055.02 points.
Doha Bank- and Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored exchange traded funds QETF and QATR witnessed 1.14% and 0.76% gains respectively.
Real estate and banking counters witnessed higher than average demand in the market, which is up 6.24% year-to-date.
Mid and large cap segments saw more buying interests on the bourse, whose capitalisation rose 1.21% to QR501.9bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the expansive mode on the market, where telecom, industrials and banking sectors together accounted for about 85% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 1.08% to 15,953.95 points and All Share Index by 1.27% to 2,676.91 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.44% to 2,273.81 points.
The realty index shot up 3.12%, banks and financial services (1.35%), insurance (0.9%), telecom (0.87%) and industrials (0.76%); whereas consumer goods declined 0.2% and transport 0.04%.
About 67% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Commercial Bank, Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar, Doha Bank, Industries Qatar, QNB, Alijarah Holding and Qatar Insurance; whereas Qatar First Bank, Aamal Company, Gulf Warehousing and Qatari Investors Group were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened considerably to QR60.45mn compared to QR11.68mn on April 18.
Local individuals’ net profit booking weakened marginally to QR7.99mn against QR8.59mn the previous day.
However, domestic institutions’ net profit booking increased significantly to QR31.97mn compared to QR13.11mn on Tuesday.
Non-Qatari individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR11.16mn compared with net buyers of QR2.05mn on April 18.
The Gulf institutions were also net sellers to the extent of QR8.14mn against net buyers of QR8.1mn the previous day.
The Gulf individuals’ net profit booking gained perceptibly to QR1.22mn compared to QR0.11mn on Tuesday.
Total trade volume almost tripled to 18.98mn shares, value rose 69% to QR360.05mn and transactions by 76% to 5,046.
The telecom sector’s trade volume grew more than 10-fold to 8.23mn equities and value by about eight-fold to QR85.04mn on deals more than quadrupled to 938.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.06mn stocks and value almost doubled to QR109.43mn on almost doubled transactions to 1,598.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 4.76mn shares, value soared 59% to QR92.15mn and deals by 45% to 987.
The real estate sector reported 55% surge in trade volume to 1.49mn equities, 8% in value to QR22.2mn and 60% in transactions to 620.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 40% to 0.31mn stocks, value by 33% to QR26.27mn and deals by 20% to 337.
There was 23% plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.27mn shares and 22% in value to QR9.24mn but on more than doubled transactions to 248.
The transport sector’s trade volume shrank 14% to 0.86mn equities and value by 9% to QR15.72mn, whereas deals expanded 34% to 318.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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