Sustained buying support from foreign institutions and lower net selling pressure from retail investors on Wednesday placed Qatar Stock Exchange in the positive trajectory.

The insurance, telecom, industrials and consumer goods counters witnessed higher than average demand, helping the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.16% to 9,728.5 points.

Doha Bank-sponsored exchange traded fund QETF witnessed 0.57% gains, while Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored QATR was rather flat.

The Islamic equities were seen gaining faster than the other indices in the market which is up more than 14% year-to-date.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where the banking, industrials and real estate sectors together accounted for about 82% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index rose 0.16% to 17,140.53 points, the All Share Index by 0.15% to 2,870.02 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.29% to 2,331.64 points.

The insurance index gained 1.36%, followed by telecom (1.29%), industrials (1.15%) and consumer goods (1.06%); while banks and financial services declined 0.54%, transport (0.32%) and realty 90.09%).

Major gainers included Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Ooredoo, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Medicare Group, Woqod and Masraf Al Rayan; whereas Doha bank, Islamic Holding Group, Widam Food, Aamal Company, United Development Company and Mazaya Qatar were among the losers.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased influentially to QR52.83mn compared to QR45.49mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR7.99mn against net sellers of QR1.06mn on September 25.

Local individual investors’ net selling weakened significantly to QR3.9mn compared to QR49.24mn on Tuesday.

However, domestic institutions’ net profit-booking strengthened considerably to QR54mn against QR1.94mn the previous day.

The Gulf institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR2.92mn compared with net buyers of QR6.7mn on September 25.

The Gulf individual investors’ net buying declined perceptibly to QR0.03mn against QR0.47mn on Tuesday.

Total trade volume rose 52% to 8.02mn shares, value by 26% to QR297.99mn and transactions by 82% to 4,651.

The real estate sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 1.64mn equities and value more than doubled to QR23.78mn on 71% increase in deals to 661.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 3.2mn stocks, value soared 47% to QR135.13mn on more than doubled transactions to 2,142.

The consumer goods sector reported a 57% surge in trade volume to 0.66mn shares, 37% in value to QR77.82mn and 28% in deals to 605.

The industrials sector’s trade volume expanded 2% to 1.71mn equities, while value fell 20% to QR43.97mn but on 54% jump in transactions to 848.

However, there was a 33% plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.18mn stocks, 37% in value to QR6.41mn and 16% in deals to 96.

The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 24% to 0.25mn shares and value by 15% to QR5mn; while transactions grew 16% to 150.

The telecom sector saw a 3% fall in trade volume to 0.39mn equities and less than 1% in value to QR5.89mn but on 16% hike in deals to 149.

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

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