Buying interests, especially in the real estate and industrials counters, on Tuesday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange after three consecutive days of bearish spell.
Foreign institutions’ increased buying interests largely drove the 20-stock Qatar Index up 0.16% to 10,376.8 points.
The bullish outlook of non-Qatari individuals also helped the market, whose sensitive index reported 0.76% gains year-to-date.
Market capitalisation expanded more than QR1bn or 0.24% to QR584.4bn mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.
Islamic equities were seen declining vis-à-vis gains in the main index on the market, where local retail investors and domestic funds were however increasingly net sellers.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where industrials, banking and realty sectors together accounted for about 77% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 0.16% to 19,094.19 points and All Share Index by 0.19% to 3,170.05 points, while Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) was down 0.07% to 2,346.59 points.
The realty index expanded 0.87%, industrials (0.54%), telecom (0.37%), consumer goods (0.08%) and banks and financial services (0.04%); whereas transport and insurance declined 0.69% and 0.66% respectively.
Major gainers included Industries Qatar, Salam International Investment, Gulf International Services, Ezdan, Commercial Bank and Islamic Holding Group; even as around 56% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Doha Bank, QIIB, Aamal Company, Doha Insurance, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat and Gulf Warehousing.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying grew considerably to QR63.34mn compared to QR44.5mn on April 29.
Non-Qatari individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR4.43mn against net sellers of QR2.44mn the previous day.
The Gulf individuals were net buyers to the extent of QR0.04mn compared with net sellers of QR0.62mn on Monday.
The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking declined noticeably to QR0.62mn against QR4.75mn on April 29.
However, domestic institutions’ net selling increased significantly to QR43.64mn compared to QR29.78mn the previous day.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking strengthened substantially to QR23.55mn against QR6.94mn on Monday.
Total trade volume fell 24% to 11.36mn shares and value by 21% to QR215.06mn, while transactions were up 1% to 5,706.
The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 67% to 0.18mn equities and value by 56% to QR5.6mn, while deals grew 26% to 230.
The industrials sector reported 64% plunge in trade volume to 3.2mn stocks, 50% in value to QR48.92mn and 37% in transactions to 1,697.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume tanked 18% to 2.88mn shares, value by 17% to QR82.4mn and deals by 10% to 1,078.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume tripled to 0.9mn equities, while value shrank 46% to QR16.9mn despite 76% higher transactions at 548.
The realty sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 2.63mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR39.9mn on more than doubled deals to 1,469.
The insurance sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 0.75mn shares, value soared 54% to QR13.16mn and transactions by 60% to 402.
There was 59% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.81mn equities and 31% in value to QR11.18mn but on 10% fall in deals to 282.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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