The Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday fell 211 points to settle below 9,000 levels as capitalisation lost QR11bn mainly on Gulf funds’ strong selling and substantially weakened net buying from their foreign counterparts.

An across-the-board-selling particularly in the industrials, telecom and banking sectors led the 20-stock Qatar Index to plunge 2.31% to 8,915.82 points.

Doha Bank and Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded funds QATR and QETF reported 1.55% and 1.27% declines respectively.

However, domestic funds and local retail investors turned bullish in the market, which is up 4.6% year-to-date.

Large-cap stocks witnessed faster declines, leading to a 2.13% shrinkage in market capitalisation to QR495.1bn.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the market, where the banking, transport and industrials sectors together accounted for more than 76% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index shrank 2.31% to 15,708.69 points, the All Share Index by 2.03% to 2,617.14 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 2.14% to 2,163.37 points.

The industrials index tanked 3.14%, followed by telecom (3.03%), banks and financial services (2.04%), realty (1.76%), consumer goods (0.61%), insurance (0.53%) and transport (0.11%).

About 78% of the stocks were in the red with major shakers being Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Electricity and Water, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Aamal Company, Ezdan and United Development Company; while Qatar Oman Investment, Salam International Investment and Mazaya Qatar were among the gainers.

The Gulf funds’ net profit-booking strengthened considerably to QR48.25mn compared to QR39.5mn on Tuesday.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying declined substantially to QR16.94mn against QR280.24mn the previous day.

However, domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR15mn compared with net sellers of QR191.62mn on May 29.

Local individual investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR13.97mn against net sellers of QR41.59mn on Tuesday.

Non-Qatari individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR2mn compared with net sellers of QR3.08mn the previous day.

The Gulf individuals were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.34mn against net profit takers of QR4.34mn on May 29.

Total trade volume fell 7% to 10.2mn shares and value by 28% to QR570.3mn, while transactions were up 9% to 7,023.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 27% to 0.16mn equities, value by 27% to QR13.32mn and deals by 15% to 251.

The banks and financial services sector saw a 24% plunge in trade volume to 3.71mn stocks and 36% in value to QR366.98mn but on a 4% jump in transactions to 3,095.

The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 18% to 1.99mn shares and value by 4% to QR121.38mn, while deals grew 26% to 1,726.

However, the insurance sector reported an 88% surge in trade volume to 0.15mn equities and 94% in value to QR5.17mn on more than doubled transactions to 147.

The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 56% to 1.14mn stocks, whereas value declined 18% to QR17.65mn despite a 28% higher deals at 457.

There was a 48% expansion in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 0.98mn shares, 62% in value to QR12.43mn and 97% in transactions to 483.

The transport sector’s trade volume gained 4% to 2.08mn equities, while value shrank 4% to QR33.38mn and deals by 22% to 864.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.