The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday witnessed some buying interests in Islamic equities but overall it settled in the negative for the third consecutive day, but above 9,600 levels.
Buying interests in five sectors was masked by selling pressure in the two (telecom and industrials), as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.06% lower at 9,607.89 points.
Doha Bank sponsored exchange traded fund QETF declined 1.09%; whereas Masraf Al Rayan sponsored QATR rather treaded a flat path.
Non-Qatari individuals were increasingly net sellers and there was lower buying interests from non-Qatari funds on the market, which however reported 12.72% year-to-date gains.
Nevertheless, domestic institutions were increasingly net buyers and local retail investors’ selling pressure weakened on the bourse, whose capitalisation was down 0.01% to QR523.79bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the market, where banking, real estate and telecom sectors together accounted for more than 71% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.06% to 16,928.04 points; while All Share Index rose 0.11% to 2,768.02 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.12% to 2,359.6 points.
The telecom and industrials indices declined 0.95% and 0.39% respectively; while realty gained 0.94%, insurance (0.45%), consumer goods (0.2%), banks and financial services (0.19%) and transport (0.15%).
Major losers included Ooredoo, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Vodafone Qatar, Zad Holding, Doha Bank and Salam International Investment; even as Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, al khaliji, Medicare Group, Widam Food, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Insurance, Ezdan, Barwa and Nakilat were among the gainers.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking increased perceptibly to QR6.16mn against QR2.46mn on July 25.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened influentially to QR17.09mn compared to QR24.16mn on Wednesday.
The Gulf individual investors’ net buying declined marginally to QR0.05mn against QR0.12mn the previous day.
Local individual investors’ net selling grew marginally to QR24.81mn compared to QR24.33mn on July 25.
However, domestic institutions’ net buying strengthened considerably to QR13.08mn against QR2.12mn on Wednesday.
The Gulf institutions’ net buying also grew perceptibly to QR0.77mn compared to QR0.42mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 17% to 6.42mn shares and value by 29% to QR175.99mn, while transactions rose 16% to 3,585.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 67% to 1.13mn equities, value by 63% to QR14.53mn and deals by 39% to 297.
There was 53% plunge in insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.08mn stocks, 57% in value to QR2.57mn and 37% in transactions to 80.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 13% to 0.28mn shares, whereas value grew 19% to QR22mn and deals by 25% to 298.
However, the industrials sector saw 63% surge in trade volume to 0.8mn equities but on 3% fall in value to QR26.24mn despite 22% higher transactions at 789.
The transport sector’s trade volume soared 38% to 0.72mn stocks, value by 50% to QR14.55mn and deals by 34% to 330.
The market witnessed 29% expansion in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.25mn shares but on 5% decline in value to QR16.26mn despite 46% higher transactions at 594.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume shot up 18% to 2.18mn equities, while value shrank 38% to QR79.85mn despite 26% jump in deals to 1,197.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
