Strong selling, especially in telecom and insurance, Monday led the Qatar Stock Exchange settle in the negative, leading its key barometer retreat below 9,800 levels.
The increased net selling by Gulf institutions, as well as the bearish outlook of non-Qatari individuals and domestic funds, were rather instrumental in the 0.24% decline in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 9,790.2 points.
Doha Bank-sponsored exchange traded fund QETF witnessed 0.41% decline, while Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored QATR soared 2.45%.
The Islamic equities were seen declining faster than the other indices in the market which is however up 14.86% year-to-date.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where banking and industrials sectors together accounted for more than 56% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.24% to 17,249.25 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.25% to 2,329.11 points, while All Share Index was up 0.02% to 2,888.68 points.
The telecom index shrank 1.15%, insurance (1.02%), industrials (0.14%), transport (0.09%) and banks and financial services (0.05%); while realty and consumer goods gained 1.18% and 0.56% respectively.
More than 53% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Ooredoo, Commercial Bank, Dlala, Salam International Investment, Aamal Company, Qatar Insurance, Gulf Warehousing and Milaha; even as Qatar National Cement, Ezdan, Qatar Fist Bank, Qatar Oman Investment, Mazaya Qatar, Medicare Group and Nakilat were among the gainers.
The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking increased influentially to QR4.77mn compared to QR1.87mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals turned net sellers to the extent of QR1.08mn against net buyers of QR1.8mn on September 30.
Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.07mn compared with net buyers of QR1.03mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened significantly to QR19.29mn against QR31.24mn the previous day.
The Gulf individual investors’ net buying also declined perceptibly to QR0.66mn compared to QR0.96mn on September 30.
However, local individual investors’ net profit booking shrank significantly to QR14.04mn against QR33.2mn on Sunday.
Total trade volume fell 54% to 4.34mn shares, value by 42% to QR179.27mn and transactions by 23% to 2,956.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 67% to 0.16mn equities, value by 66% to QR2.36mn and deals by 37% to 124.
The industrials sector reported 65% plunge in trade volume to 1.16mn stocks, 53% in value to QR43.63mn and 37% in transactions to 652.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 57% to 0.77mn shares, value by 40% to QR16.87mn and deals by 7% to 529.
There was 56% shrinkage in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.19mn equities, 57% in value to QR7.3mn and 26% in transactions to 99.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume declined 47% to 1.29mn stocks, value by 32% to QR56.79mn and deals by 5% to 1,003.
The transport sector saw 33% contraction in trade volume to 0.3mn shares, 24% in value to QR6.75mn and 50% in transactions to 163.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume shrank 18% to 0.47mn equities, value by 38% to QR45.58mn and deals by 25% to 386.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
