The Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday weakened further on the back of strong selling, particularly in telecom and real estate equities.
Domestic funds were increasingly net sellers and Gulf institutions and local retail investors turned bearish as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.46% lower at 10,433.56 points.
However, foreign institutions turned bullish in the market, which is up 22.41% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation shed about QR3bn, or 0.47%, to QR587.35bn, mainly owing to large cap segment.
Islamic equities were seen declining slower than the other indices in the market, where non-Qatari individuals were increasingly net buyers.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the bourse, where the banking and realty sectors together accounted for more than 64% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index shed 0.46% to 18,382.78 points, the All Share Index by 0.53% to 3,108.3 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.28% to 2,429.15 points.
The telecom index tanked 2.08%, followed by real estate (1.23%), banks and financial services (0.35%), transport (0.3%) and industrials (0.17%); whereas consumer goods and insurance gained 0.21% and 0.1% respectively.
About 53% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Ooredoo, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, QIIB, Widam Food and Milaha; even as Alijarah Holding, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Salam International Investment, Gulf International Services and Nakilat were among the gainers.
Domestic institutions’ net selling increased influentially to QR19.77mn compared to QR15.42mn the previous day.
Gulf institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR12.35mn against net buyers of QR4.94mn on December 11.
Local individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR0.69mn compared with net buyers of QR11.05mn on Tuesday.
However, non-Qatari funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR28.92mn against net sellers of QR1.85mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net buying increased considerably to QR3.22mn compared to QR0.9mn on December 11.
Gulf individual investors’ net buying also grew marginally to QR0.66mn against QR0.41mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume fell 39% to 4.44mn shares, value by 32% to QR152.67mn and transactions by 41% to 3,239.
There was 62% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.18mn equities, 59% in value to QR4.15mnm and 49% in deals to 142.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 59% to 0.42mn stocks, value by 51% to QR9.63mn and transactions by 40% to 408.
The banks and financial services sector saw 45% shrinkage in trade volume to 1.74mn shares, 31% in value to QR77.17mn and 48% in deals to 1,145.
The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 31% to 0.09mn equities, value by 27% to QR3.3mn and transactions by 17% to 116.
The market witnessed 26% contraction in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.11mn stocks, 27% in value to QR19.48mn and 33% in deals to 673.
The industrials sector’s trade volume shrank 14% to 0.63mn shares, value by 45% to QR22.06mn and transactions by 43% to 515.
However, the consumer goods sector reported 47% surge in trade volume to 0.28mn equities and 35% in value to QR16.88mn but on 2% fall in deals to 240.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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