Foreign and Gulf institutions pumped in funds to lift the Qatar Stock Exchange more than 207 points to make its key benchmark settle above 10,200 levels.
An across-the-board buying, particularly at the banking and industrials counters, led the 20-stock Qatar Index to surge 2.07% to 10,207.38 points on Thursday.
There was also weakened net selling pressure among the Gulf individuals in the market, whose key benchmark closed 0.64% lower year-to-date.
Market capitalisation shot up more than QR13bn, or 2.37%, to QR564.179bn mainly owing to large and midcap segments.
Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the main index in the market, where local retail investors were increasingly net sellers and domestic funds turned bearish.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where the banking, industrials and real estate sectors together accounted for more than 77% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 2.07% to 18,829.31 points, the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 1.49% to 2,302.11 points and the All Share Index by 2.08% to 3,004.42 points.
The banks and financial services index expanded 2.71%, industrials (2.28%), transport (2.03%), telecom (1.94%), consumer goods (0.94%), insurance (0.22%) and realty (0.11%).
About 69% of the traded constituents extended gains with major movers being Commercial Bank, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Al Khaliji, Industries Qatar, Medicare Group, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Qatar National Cement, Aamal Company, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Al Khaleej Takaful, Ooredoo and Nakilat; even as Qatar Oman Investment, Qatar Electricity and Water, Doha Insurance and Qatar First Bank were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the extent of QR39.59mn against net sellers of QR15.92mn on Wednesday.
Gulf funds were also net buyers to the tune of QR9.48mn compared with net sellers of QR0.37mn on August 28.
Gulf individual investors’ net profit booking fell noticeably to QR5.16mn against QR9.08mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors’ net selling increased considerably to QR30.82mn compared to QR19.5mn on Wednesday.
Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR8.62mn against net buyers of QR49.99mn on August 28.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking grew influentially to QR5.07mn compared to QR0.08mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 38% to 91.95mn shares, value by 60% to QR324.75mn and transactions by 22% to 7,209.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than six-fold to 3.87mn equities and value by more than five-fold to QR9.47mn on more-than- tripled deals to 365.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 6.82mn stocks, value soared 67% to QR16.02mn and transactions by 30% to 523.
The banks and financial services sector saw an 88% surge in trade volume to 37.62mn shares to more than double value to QR174.25mn on a 38% increase in deals to 2,770.
The industrials sector’s trade volume expanded 44% to 16.86mn equities, value by 45% to QR55.13mn and transactions by 20% to 1,760.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was up 3% to 16.35mn stocks and value by 22% to QR18.7mn, whereas deals declined 10% to 860.
However, there was a 52% plunge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 4.63mn shares, 25% in value to QR37mn and 18% in transactions to 592.
The transport sector’s trade volume was down 4% to 5.81mn equities, while value grew 1% to QR14.18mn and deals by 41% to 339.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
