The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday inched near 10,500 levels, mainly on the back of strong buying interests in consumer goods and transport equities.
Foreign institutions’ increased buying interests and Gulf funds’ bullish outlook led the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.77% for the third straight session to 10,480.52 points.
Domestic institutions’ substantially weakened net selling pressure also helped the market, whose sensitive index is up 1.76% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation expanded more than QR3bn, or 0.53%, to QR586.51bn mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.
Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the main index in the market, where local retail investors were increasingly net profit takers.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where the industrials and banking sectors together accounted for more than 72% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 0.77% to 19,285.05 points, the All Share Index by 0.47% to 3,182.11 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.7% to 2,368.8 points.
The consumer goods index soared 2.34%, transport (1.74%), industrials (0.76%), banks and financial services (0.42%) and telecom (0.1%); whereas realty and insurance declined 0.94% and 0.46% respectively.
Major gainers included Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Doha Bank, Woqod, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Dlala, Qatar First Bank, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Widam Food and Al Khaleej Takaful; even as Islamic Holding Group, Qatar Electricity and Water, Ezdan and Milaha were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying grew considerably to QR41.62mn compared to QR23.28mn on May 1.
The Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR9.17mn against net sellers of QR3.78mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net selling declined significantly to QR3.96mn compared to QR15.19mn on Wednesday.
The Gulf individuals’ net profit booking weakened marginally to QR0.31mn against QR0.64mn on May 1.
However, local retail investors’ net selling strengthened substantially to QR41.28mn compared to QR1.99mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking grew noticeably to QR5.21mn against QR1.68mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume rose 51% to 18.97mn shares, value by 60% to QR311.99mn and transactions by 33% to 6,644.
The transport sector’s trade volume grew more than six-fold to 0.63mn equities and value by more than five-fold to QR14.14mn on more-than-doubled deals to 365.
The realty sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.79mn stocks and value also more than doubled to QR36.02mn on a 68% increase in transactions to 1,411.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 4.88mn shares, value soared 44% to QR107.88mn and deals by 36% to 1,461.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume expanded 62% to 0.68mn equities and value more than quadrupled to QR36.43mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 468.
There was a 56% surge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 8.78mn stocks, 55% in value to QR102.86mn and 17% in deals to 2,448.
The insurance sector’s trade volume shot up 48% to 0.31mn shares, value by 74% to QR6.82mn and transactions by 38% to 240.
However, the telecom sector reported a 69% plunge in trade volume to 0.9mn equities, 65% in value to QR7.84mn and 39% in deals to 251.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
