Strong buying interests at the transport and banking counters notwithstanding, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday largely treaded a flat path.
Increased selling pressure from local retail investors and weakened buying interests of foreign funds was to a great extend contained by the bullish outlook of domestic institutions as the 20-stock Qatar Index continued to remain at a near two-year high of 10,762 points.
Gulf institutions were seen bullish in the market, whose sensitive index settled 4.49% higher year-to-date.
Market capitalisation however shed more than QR1bn, or 0.18%, to QR614.73bn mainly owing to micro and small cap segments.
Islamic equities were seen making equivalent declines in the market, where non-Qatari retail investors were increasingly profit takers.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where the industrials, banking and realty sectors together accounted for about 80% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index was down 0.01% to 18,961.08 points, the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.01% to 2,524.32 points and the All Share Index by 0.13% to 3,226.75 points.
The real estate index declined 0.55%, followed by banks and financial services (0.38%), telecom (0.29%), insurance (0.13%) and industrials (0.09%); while transport and consumer goods gained 1.76% and 1.24% respectively.
About 55% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Aamal Company, Doha Insurance, Ahlibank, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Qatar First Bank, Ezdan, Barwa and Qatari Investors Group; even as Nakilat, Alijarah Holding, Zad Holding, Medicare Group and Qatar National Cement were among the gainers.
Local individuals’ net selling strengthened significantly to QR91.46mn compared to QR85.11mn on January 15.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking grew considerably to QR6.77mn against QR2.44mn the previous day.
Gulf individual investors’ net selling expanded marginally to QR0.45mn compared to QR0.44mn on Tuesday.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying declined influentially to QR65.33mn against QR93.15mn on January 15.
However, domestic funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR32.02mn compared with net sellers of QR0.03mn the previous day.
Gulf institutions were also net buyers to the extent of QR1.32mn against net profit takers of QR5.09mn on Tuesday.
Total trade volume rose 22% to 12.08mn shares, value by 29% to QR378.08mn and transactions by 10% to 7,056.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 1.2mn equities and value also more than tripled to QR34.23mn on more-than-doubled deals to 562.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 3.74mn stocks, value soared 57% to QR159.82mn and transactions by 60% to 1,321.
The real estate sector reported a 37% surge in trade volume to 1.98mn shares, 21% in value to QR33.65mn and 8% in deals to 973.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 61% to 0.35mn equities, value by 37% to QR10.39mn and transactions by 27% to 335.
There was a 42% plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.18mn stocks, 64% in value to QR4.21mn and 49% in deals to 102.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 18% to 0.72mn shares, whereas value grew 54% to QR56.76mn and transactions by 64% to 1,031.
The industrials sector saw a 5% decline in trade volume to 3.9mn equities, 11% in value to QR79.02mn and 14% in deals to 2,732.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
