Foreign funds’ stronger selling pressure on Thursday extended the bearish spell on the Qatar Stock Exchange for the second straight session and its key index lost another 49 points.
Telecom, insurance, transport, banking and industrials counters witnessed higher than average profit booking as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.47% lower at 10,310.69 points.
Non-Qatari and Gulf individuals were seen bearish on the market, whose key benchmark is however marginally up 0.11% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation saw about QR3bn or 0.5% decline to QR571.67bn mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.
Islamic equities were declining slower than the other indices on the market, where domestic institutions and local retail investors were increasingly bullish.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where industrials, banking and realty together accounted for about 76% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.47% to 18,972.54 points, All Share Index by 0.46% to 3,042.04 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.13% to 2,322.23 points.
The telecom index shrank 1.16%, insurance (0.92%), transport (0.6%), banks and financial services (0.59%) and industrials (0.5%); while real estate and consumer goods gained 1.48% and 0.08% respectively.
Major losers included Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB, Doha Bank, Al Meera, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Ezdan, Ooredoo and Nakilat; even as Qatar Oman Investment, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Salam International Investment, Medicare Group, United Development Company and Gulf Warehousing were among the gainers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net selling increased substantially to QR21.8mn compared to QR2.25mn on October 2.
Non-Qatari individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.94mn against net buyers of QR1.42mn the previous day.
The Gulf individuals were also net sellers to the extent of QR0.12mn compared with net buyers of QR2.6mn on Wednesday.
However, domestic institutions’ net buying expanded significantly to QR22mn against QR7.42mn on October 2.
Local retail investors’ net buying strengthened noticeably to QR3.97mn compared to QR0.21mn the previous day.
The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking weakened influentially to QR3.11mn against QR9.38mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume fell 42% to 73.4mn shares, value by 20% to QR164.67mn and transactions by 22% to 5,882.
The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 67% to 26.53mn equities, value by 60% to QR32.59mn and deals by 39% to 1,739.
The telecom sector reported 57% plunge in trade volume to 1.22mn stocks, 62% in value to QR4.13mn and 49% in transactions to 282.
There was 29% shrinkage in the transport sector’s trade volume to 1.15mn shares and 26% in value to QR3.41mn but on 3% jump in deals to 116.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 12% to 14.06mn equities, value by 2% to QR16.47mn and transactions by 24% to 1,383.
The banks and financial services sector saw 8% erosion in trade volume to 15mn stocks but on 19% jump in value to QR72.52mn and 2% in deals to 1,359.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume soared 70% to 12.74mn shares, value by 11% to QR27.21mn and transactions by 8% to 739.
The market witnessed 33% surge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 2.71mn equities, 34% in value to QR8.33mn and 66% in deals to 264.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
