The Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday snapped two days of bearish run to settle 33 points higher, mainly on foreign institutions’ buying interests.
Influential buying — especially in real estate, consumer goods and telecom — helped the 20- stock Qatar Index gain 0.38% to 8,928.74 points.
Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored exchange traded fund QATR gained 2.61%, while Doha Bank-sponsored QETF saw 0.27% decline.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster than the other indices on the market, which is up 4.76% year-to-date.
However, Gulf and domestic funds as well as local and non-Qatari retail investors turned bearish on the bourse, whose capitalisation rose 0.37% to QR489.04bn, mainly lifted by midcaps.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the market, where transport, telecom and banks together accounted for more than 69% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index grew 0.38% to 15,731.44 points, All Share Index by 0.5% to 2,597.33 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.62% to 2,192.3 points.
The realty index soared 1.88%, consumer goods (1.39%), telecom (0.69%), transport (0.66%), industrials (0.57%) and insurance (0.05%); while banks and financial services were down 0.02%.
About 71% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Ezdan, Woqod, Doha Insurance, Vodafone Qatar, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Gulf Warehousing, Dlala, Qatar Electricity and Water and Aamal Company; whereas QNB, Zad Holding, Qatar Insurance, Doha Bank and Alijarah Holding were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR29.56mn compared with net sellers of QR14.71mn on Tuesday.
However, local individual investors turned net sellers to the extent of QR17.3mn against net buyers of QR1.21mn on June 26.
Non-Qatari individuals were net sellers to the tune of QR6.27mn compared with net buyers of QR0.48mn the previous day.
The Gulf institutions turned net profit takers to the extent of QR4.47mn against net buyers of QR5.8mn on Tuesday.
Domestic institutions were also net sellers to the tune of QR0.95mn compared with net buyers of QR7.13mn on June 26.
The Gulf individuals were net profit takers to the extent of QR0.52mn against net buyers of QR0.08mn the previous day.
Total trade volume more than doubled to 9.23mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR272.43mn on 30% increase in transactions to 2,757.
The transport sector’s trade volume grew about 14-fold to 2.64mn equities and value by about seven-fold to QR42.33mn on 42% jump in deals to 215.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume rose more than nine-fold to 0.57mn stocks and value by about 15-fold to QR73.62mn on more than quadrupled transactions to 399.
The telecom sector’s trade volume increased more than five-fold to 2mn shares and value more than doubled to QR21.17mn but on 5% fall in deals to 205.
The real estate sector’s trade volume soared 38% to 1.17mn equities and value by 98% to QR19.61mn, while transactions shrank 11% to 370.
The insurance sector reported 33% surge in trade volume to 0.4mn stocks and value 26% in value to QR13.71mn but on 1% fall in deals to 191.
The industrials sector’s trade volume expanded 18% to 0.72mn shares, value by 59% to QR24.29mn and transactions by 71% to 424.
However, the banks and financial services sector saw 16% decline in trade volume to 1.73mn equities but on 34% increase in value to QR77.7mn and 18% in deals to 953.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills; whereas as many as 26,000 sovereign bonds valued at QR260mn traded across two transactions.
