Qatar Aluminium Manufacturing Company (Qamco), which will make its entry to the FTSE index next week, continued to hog the limelight with its scrips touching the upper circuit filter but overall it had little impact on the market, which closed marginally up on Wednesday.
Although decliners outnumbered gainers, the 20-stock Qatar Index settled a marginal 0.07% higher at 10,496.4 points.
Foreign funds continued to be net buyers but with lesser vigour and Gulf institutions turned bullish in the market, which is up 23.15% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation grew about QR3bn, or 0.5%, to QR599.77bn, mainly owing to microcap segments.
Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the other indices in the market, where local retail investors were increasingly bearish.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the rise in the bourse, where the industrials sector alone accounted for about 78% of the total volume.
Global index compiler FTSE Russell has decided to include the recently listed Qamco under its All World Index, Global Mid Cap Index and Emerging Index from December 24.
"Following the initial public offering on December 16, 2018, Qamco will be a fast entry to the FTSE global equity index series in accordance with FTSE Global Equity Series Ground Rule 8.1.3," a FTSE release said.
The Total Return Index rose 0.07% to 18,493.48 points, the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.01% to 2,428.64 points and the All Share Index by 0.55% to 3,940.52 points.
The real estate index soared 3.4%, followed by consumer goods (0.48%), banks and financial services (0.21%) and transport (0.04%); even as telecom, insurance and industrials declined 0.32%, 0.25% and 0.14% respectively.
Major gainers included Qamco, Ezdan, Qatar Islamic Bank, Ahlibank, Salam International Investment, Mannai Corporation and Nakilat; whereas more than 51% of the stocks were in the red, which included Qatar First Bank, al khaliji, Medicare Group, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo and Gulf Warehousing.
Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.81mn compared with net sellers of QR0.4mn on December 17.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking declined influentially to QR2.68mn against QR20.49mn on Monday.
However, non-Qatari funds’ net buying eased marginally to QR92.39mn compared to QR93.47mn the previous day.
Local individual investors’ net selling grew considerably to QR88.96mn against QR79.29mn on December 17.
Non-Qatari individuals turned net sellers to the extent of QR1.89mn compared with net buyers of QR5.5mn on Monday.
Gulf individuals were also net sellers to the tune of QR0.68mn against net buyers of QR1.2mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 8% to 20.28mn shares and value by 4% to QR377.89mn, while transactions fell 11% to 13,592.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 42% to 0.07mn equities, value by 39% to QR2.36mn and deals by 34% to 97.
There was a 27% plunge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.19mn stocks, 21% in value to QR7.08mn and 27% in transactions to 222.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 17% to 1.28mn shares and value by 21% to QR22.68mn, whereas deals were up 5% to 885.
The banks and financial services sector saw an 8% decline in trade volume to 1.96mn equities and 5% in value to QR104.05mn but on an 11% growth in transactions to 1,633.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume soared 23% to 0.49mn stocks, while value was down 7% to QR7.17mn despite 6% higher deals at 319.
The transport sector reported a 14% surge in trade volume to 0.49mn shares, 21% in value to QR11.21mn and 12% in transactions to 322.
The industrials sector’s trade volume expanded 13% to 15.81mn stocks and value by 14% to QR223.34mn, while deals shrank 15% to 10,114.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
