Qatar’s decision to pull out of the oil grouping and concentrate more on liquefied natural gas appears to have substantially lifted the sentiments on the Qatar Stock Exchange, whose key index crossed the 10,450 mark with an ease.
Foreign funds turned bullish and there were increased buying interests from Gulf funds as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 1.3% higher at 10,451.33 points.
However, there was substantially higher selling pressure from local retail investors on the market, which is up 22.62% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation expanded more than QR7bn or 1.2% to QR590.8bn, mainly owing to large and midcap segments.
Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the other indices on the market, where domestic funds and non-Qatari individuals turned bearish.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where banks and realty sectors together accounted for more than 73% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 1.3% to 18,414.08 points, All Share Index by 1.15% to 3,110.27 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.72% to 2,408.35 points.
The insurance index soared 1.59%, banks and financial services (1.55%), telecom (1.38%), industrials (1.2%), transport (0.99%) and consumer goods (0.72%); while real estate declined 0.2%.
More than 65% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Ooredoo, Commercial Bank, QNB, Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Islamic Holding Group, Qatar National Cement, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services and Qatar Insurance; whereas Ahlibank, Medicare Group, Salam International Investment, Aamal Company, Barwa, Ezdan and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.
Non-Qatari funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR83.56mn against net sellers of QR0.71mn on December 2.
The Gulf institutions’ net buying increased influentially to QR4.46mn compared to QR0.16mn the previous day.
However, local individuals’ net profit booking grew significantly to QR66.87mn against QR2.7mn on Sunday.
Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR12.32mn compared with net buyers of QR1.96mn on December 2.
Non-Qatari individuals were also net sellers to the tune of QR7.23mn against net buyers of QR0.51mn the previous day.
The Gulf individual investors turned net profit takers to the extent of QR1.6mn compared with net buyers of QR0.78mn on Sunday.
Total trade volume more than doubled to 7.75mn shares and value more than quadrupled to QR301.22mn on more than doubled transactions to 5,106.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 0.69mn equities and value also more than quadrupled to QR14.5mnm on more than tripled deals to 332.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 2.5mn stocks and value also more than tripled to QR49.53mn on more than doubled transactions to 1,468.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.17mn shares and value more than tripled to QR22.65mn on more than tripled deals to 360.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.17mn equities and value grew more than six-fold to QR162.4mn on more than doubled transactions to 1,937.
The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 66% to 0.63mn stocks to more than triple value to QR39.01mn on more than doubled deals to 588.
There was 42% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.47mn shares but on 7% fall in in value to QR8.91mn and 7% in transactions to 254.
The insurance sector’s trade volume expanded 38% to 0.11mn equities and value by 52% to QR4.22mn on more than doubled deals to 167.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.

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