The Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday inched near 10,400 levels mainly on bullish sentiments of foreign institutions.
The insurance, telecom and banking counters witnessed higher than average demand as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 66 points, or 0.65%, to 10,375.67 points.
Non-Qatari individuals were seen increasingly bullish in the market, whose key benchmark was up 0.74% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation saw more than QR3bn, or 0.56%, gains to QR572.68bn mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.
Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the other indices in the market, where domestic institutions turned net sellers.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the bourse, where the banking, realty and industrials sectors together accounted for more than 85% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 0.65% to 19,092.1 points, the All Share Index by 0.6% to 3,047.54 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.13% to 2,336 points.
The insurance index shot up 2.4%, telecom (1.25%), banks and financial services (1.11%) and transport (0.25%); while real estate declined 0.48%, industrials (0.21%) and consumer goods (0.08%).
More than 47% of the traded constituents extended gains with major movers being Qatar Insurance, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, QNB, Commercial Bank, QIIB, Qatar First Bank, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and Qatari Investors Group; even as Medicare Group, Qatar National Cement, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar Aluminium Manufacturing, Ezdan and Untied Development Company were among the losers.
Non-Qatari funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR33.03mn against net sellers of QR21.79mn on September 9.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net buying increased perceptibly to QR3.43mn compared to QR2.41mn on Monday.
Gulf individuals were net buyers to the extent of QR0.72mn against net sellers of QR3.06mn the previous day.
Gulf institutions’ net profit booking fell noticeably to QR16.08mn compared to QR22.76mn on September 9.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR19.96mn against net buyers of QR4.19mn on Monday.
Domestic funds were net sellers to the extent of QR1.13mn compared with net buyers of QR39.87mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 10% to 120.47mn shares, value by 2% to QR298.38mn and transactions by less than 1% to 7,841.
There was a 53% plunge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 23.11mn equities, 44% in value to QR21.15mn and 46% in deals to 804.
The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 31% to 17.23mn stocks, value by 26% to QR39.91mn and transactions by 5% to 1,849.
The insurance sector reported a 28% shrinkage in trade volume to 2.19mn shares and 20% in value to QR6.15mn but on 7% increase in deals to 263.
The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 24% to 7.18mn equities and value by 11% to QR27.49mn, but on more-than-doubled transactions to 1,855.
The transport sector saw a 23% contraction in trade volume to 5.98mn stocks, 23% in value to QR19.95mn and 30% in deals to 331.
However, the banks and financial services sector’s trade volume soared 70% to 62.34mn shares and value by 27% to QR164.17mn but on 13% decline in transactions to 2,232.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume was up 6% to 2.44mn equities, while value fell 6% to QR19.56mn despite 28% higher deals at 507.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
Related Story