Ahead of the Eid holidays, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday snapped five days of bearish spell, amidst heavy trading, especially due to the banking scrips.
Foreign institutions’ stronger buying interest led the 20-stock Qatar Index to gain 0.19% to 9,097.91 points.
Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund QATR witnessed 1.58% gains, while Doha Bank sponsored QETF fell 0.14%.
Islamic stocks were seen underperforming the market, which is, however, up 6.74% year-to-date.
However, there was increased net selling by Gulf funds and local retail investors turned bearish in the bourse, whose capitalisation fell 0.42% to QR499.54bn mainly due to small and midcap stocks.
Trade turnover and volumes were in an expansive mode in the market, where the banking sector alone accounted for about 47% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index rose 0.19% to 16,029.5 points, while the All Share Index shed 0.51% to 2,651.33 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.07% to 2,211.67 points.
The transport index soared 2.81% and banks and financial services 0.84%; whereas realty declined 3.96%, insurance (2.77%), consumer goods (2.31%), telecom (1.17%) and industrials (0.83%).
Major gainers included Nakilat, Milaha, Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Alijarah Holding, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing; whereas Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Woqod, United Development Company, Qatar Insurance, Gulf International Services and Ooredoo were among the losers.
Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking grew significantly to QR561.78mn against QR178.73mn on June 13.
Local individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR219.7mn compared with net buyers of QR8.24mn on Wednesday.
Gulf institutions were also net sellers to the extent of QR8.69mn against net buyers of QR4.18mn the previous day.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying grew significantly to QR779.99mn compared to QR167.88mn on June 13.
Non-Qatari individual investors were net buyers to the tune of QR9.43mn against net sellers of QR1.04mn on Wednesday.
Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the extent of QR0.74mn compared with profit takers of QR0.52mn the previous day.
Total trade volume grew almost five-fold to 32.16mn shares and value by more than six-fold to QR2.48bn on more-than-doubled transactions at 9,193.
The industrials sector’s trade volume increased more than six-fold to 3.92mn equities and value also by more than six-fold to QR337.74mn on more-than-doubled deals to 2,077.
The real estate sector’s trade volume expanded more than five-fold to 2.81mn stocks and value more than quadrupled to QR40.79mn on almost-tripled-transactions to 893.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume shot up more than five-fold to 15.03mn shares and value by almost seven-fold to QR1.91bn on more-than-doubled deals to 4,094.
The telecom sector’s trade volume grew more than five-fold to 5.23mn equities and value by almost five-fold to QR72.39mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 765.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 0.26mn stocks and value more than quadrupled to QR24.9mn on more-than-doubled deals to 266.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 4.53mn shares and value also more than tripled to QR86.28mn on an 89% jump in transactions to 868.
There was a 58% surge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.38mn equities, 53% in value to QR14.2mn and 39% in deals to 230.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
Related Story