An across the board buying – particularly in insurance and transport counters – on Wednesday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange 122 points, thus ending four consecutive days of bearish spell.

Attractive valuations led foreign institutions turn net buyers, resulting in the 20-stock Qatar Index surge 1.19% to 10,441.04 points amidst heightened trading.

Nevertheless, local retail investors and domestic institutions turned net sellers in the market, whose key benchmark was up 1.38% year-to-date.

Market capitalisation saw more than QR6bn or 1.09% increase to QR577.25bn mainly owing to large and midcap segments.

Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the other indices in the market, where non-Qatari individuals turned bearish and there was weakened net buying interests from the Gulf funds.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where industrials and banking sectors together accounted for more than 56% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index gained 1.19% to 19,212.41 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.72% to 2,346.74 points and All Share Index by 1.07% to 3,065.1 points.

The insurance index soared 3.07%, transport (3.02%), banks and financial services (1.08%), telecom (1%), industrials (0.74%), realty (0.37%) and consumer goods (0.34%).

About 59% of the traded constituents extended gains with major movers being Qatar Insurance, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Milaha, Doha Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Qatar Electricity and Water and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding; even as Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Qatar Oman Investment, Islamic Holding Group and Qatari Investors Group were among the losers.

Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR21.96mn against net sellers of QR38.21mn on September 24.

However, local retail investors were net sellers to the extent of QR10.9mn compared with net buyers of QR4.84mn on Tuesday.

Domestic institutions also turned net sellers to the tune of QR8.31mn against net buyers of QR20.09mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari individuals were net profit takers to the extent of QR4.45mn compared with net buyers of QR6.17mn on September 24.

The Gulf individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.5mn against net buyers of QR0.3mn on Tuesday.

The Gulf institutions’ net buying weakened noticeably to QR2.18mn compared to QR6.8mn the previous day.

Total trade volume rose 23% to 93.62mn shares, value by 24% to QR229.46mn and transactions by 17% to 6,859.

The transport sector’s trade volume soared 85% to 6.03mn equities, value by 56% to QR25.99mn and deals by 88% to 515.

The telecom sector reported 73% surge in trade volume to 5.44mn stocks, 10% in value to QR20.39mn and 35% in transactions to 1,043.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume shot up 61% to 17.68mn shares to more than double value to QR36.9mn on 12% jump in deals to 664.

The banks and financial services sector saw 47% increase in trade volume to 23.83mn equities, 8% in value to QR77.03mn and 5% in transactions to 1,606.

The industrials sector’s trade volume grew 16% to 28.73mn stocks, value by 28% to QR49.52mn and deals by 40% to 2,308.

However, there was 33% plunge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 10.48mn shares, 5% in value to QR15.63mn and 39% in transactions to 531.

The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 30% to 1.43mn equities and value by 31% to QR4.01mn, whereas deals expanded 17% to 192.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.


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