Bearish sentiments continued to haunt Qatar Stock Exchange for the second straight session as its key index fell below 9,800 levels mainly on increased selling pressure from foreign funds and Gulf individuals.
The real estate, banking, industrials and transport counters witnessed higher than average selling as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.3% lower at 9,787.77 points.
There were also weakened net buying interests from domestic institutions in the market, whose key benchmark closed 4.96% lower year-to-date.
Market capitalisation saw about QR2bn, or 0.31% decline, to QR539.09bn mainly owing to mid and microcap segments.
Islamic equities were seen declining slower than the other indices in the market, where local retail investors turned bullish.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where the banking and realty sectors together accounted for about 68% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.3% to 18,010.32 points, the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.29% to 2,233.51 points and the All Share Index by 0.39% to 2,883.13 points.
The realty index shrank 0.57%, banks and financial services (0.52%), industrials (0.33%), transport (0.31%) and consumer goods (0.15%); whereas telecom and insurance gained 0.23% and 0.22% respectively.
More than 59% of the traded constituents were in the red with major losers being United Development Company, Gulf Warehousing, Qatar First Bank, Qatar Oman Investment, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Qatari Investors Group, QNB, Doha Insurance and Nakilat.
Nevertheless, Doha Bank, Al Khaliji, Alijarah Holding, Dlala, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Ooredoo and Milaha were gainers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net selling increased substantially to QR18.8mn against QR14.99mn on August 25.
Gulf individual investors’ net selling also grew significantly to QR11.88 compared to QR7.01mn on Sunday.
Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened influentially to QR24.68mn against QR40.41mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR7.36mn compared with net sellers of QR4.14mn on August 25.
Gulf institutions were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.47mn against net sellers of QR5.68mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking declined noticeably to QR1.83mn compared to QR8.59mn on Sunday.
Total trade volume grew 56% to 94.58mn shares, value by 70% to QR247.06mn and transaction by 20% to 5,985.
The transport sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 12.68mn equities and value also almost tripled to QR30.45mn on more-than-doubled deals to 529.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 27.54mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR39.29mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 1,067.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 48% surge in trade volume to 36.75mn shares, 77% in value to QR104.81mn and 72% in deals to 2,012.
The industrials sector’s trade volume was up 8% to 13.16mn equities and value by 48% to QR40.53mn, while transactions declined 21% to 1,407.
However, the telecom sector reported a 54% plunge in trade volume to 1.26mn stocks, 31% in value to QR7.51mn and 50% in deals to 368.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 31% to 2.15mn shares, whereas value expanded 7% to QR22.01mn and transactions by 2% to 446.
There was a 30% shrinkage in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 1.04mn equities and 39% in value to QR2.48mn but on a 26% growth in deals to 156.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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