The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday continued to remain bullish for the second straight session and gained more than 95 points to surpass 9,000 levels, mainly on strong buying interests in transport and realty counters.
Foreign institutions’ sustained buying led the 20-stock Qatar Index to report another 1.07% addition to 9,024.03 points.
Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank sponsored exchange traded funds QATR and QETF gained 1.54% and 0.55% respectively.
Islamic stocks were seen underperforming the other indices in the market, which is up 5.87% year-to-date.
The weakened net selling by local and non-Qatar individuals as well as Gulf funds also played their part in the bourse, whose capitalisation rose 0.95% to QR493.69bn, mainly lifted by midcaps.
Trade turnover was up amidst lower volumes in the market, where the telecom, banking and real estate sectors together accounted for about 77% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index grew 1.07% to 15,899.35 points, the All Share Index by 0.93% to 2,621.36 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.48% to 2,202.93 points.
The transport index soared 2.63%, followed by realty (1.49%), industrials (1.05%), telecom (1%), banks and financial services (0.69%) and insurance (0.5%); while consumer goods was down 0.06%.
About 49% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Milaha, Ezdan, Ooredoo, Qatar Electricity and Water, Industries Qatar, QNB, Commercial Bank, Ahli Bank and Qatar Islamic Bank; even as Qatar First Bank, Gulf International Services, QIIB and Medicare Group were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buying increased substantially to QR42.93mn compared to QR29.56mn on Wednesday.
Local individual investors’ net selling weakened considerably to QR9.55mn against QR17.3mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit-booking declined significantly to QR2.92mn compared to QR6.27mn on June 27.
Gulf institutional investors’ net selling fell influentially to QR0.66mn against QR4.47mn on Wednesday.
Gulf individuals’ net selling also declined marginally to QR0.33mn compared to QR0.52mn the previous day.
However, domestic institutions’ net profit-booking increased substantially to QR29.44mn against QR0.95mn on June 27.
Total trade volume fell 7% to 8.56mn shares, while value rose 1% to QR275.17mn and transactions by 35% to 3,723.
The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 71% to 0.77mn equities and value by 22% to QR33.12mn, while deals grew 35% to 291.
The consumer goods sector reported a 60% plunge in trade volume to 0.23mn stocks, 71% in value to QR21.48mn and 26% in transactions to 295.
The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 13% to 0.35mn shares and value by 8% to QR12.56mn, whereas deals grew 28% to 244.
The industrials sector saw a 10% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.65mn equities but on 51% increase in value to QR36.72mn and 40% in transactions to 594.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume soared 75% to 3.5mn stocks and value by 88% to QR39.78mn on more than doubled deals to 430.
There was an 8% increase in the banks and financial services sector’s trade volume to 1.87mn shares, 41% in value to QR109.86mn and 37% in transactions to 1,301.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was up 3% to 1.2mn equities, value by 10% to QR21.65mn and deals by 54% to 568.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
