The Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday gained a robust 102 points to cross the 10,300 level with ease, mainly lifted by industrials and banking equities.

Foreign institutions’ substantially increased buying interests led the 20-stock Qatar Index to gain for the third straight session to 10,303.73 points.

The Gulf institutions were also increasingly net buyers in the market, whose key benchmark is up 0.05% year-to-date.

Market capitalisation saw about QR8bn, or 1.35%, addition to QR570.99bn mainly owing to large and small cap segments.

Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the other indices in the market, where local retail investors turned bearish and there was increased net profit booking pressure from domestic funds.

Trade turnover rose amidst lower volumes in the bourse, where the banking, realty and industrials sectors together accounted for about 80% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index gained 1.01% to 18,959.74 points, the All Share Index 1.16% to 3,041.19 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.82% to 2,305.15 points.

The industrials index soared 1.89%, banks and financial services (1.51%), telecom (0.95%), insurance (0.43%) and consumer goods (0.02%); while transport and real estate declined 1.79% and 0.03% respectively.

Major gainers included Industries Qatar, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar Electricity and Water, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Medicare Group, Al Khaleej Takaful and Ooredoo; even as Milaha, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Doha Bank and Qatar First Bank were among the gainers.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased significantly to QR86.13mn compared to QR34.9mn on November 4.

The Gulf institutions’ net buying also grew considerably to QR13.39mn against QR3.17mn the previous day.

The Gulf individuals’ net selling weakened perceptibly to QR7.29mn compared to QR8.05mn on Monday.

Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking fell noticeably to QR0.44mn against QR1.56mn on November 4.

However, domestic funds’ net selling expanded substantially to QR68.71mn compared to QR40.4mn the previous day.

Local retail investors turned net profit takers to the tune of QR23.05mn against net buyers of QR11.95mn on Monday.

Total trade volume fell 30% to 62.14mn shares, while value rose 19% to QR210.13mn and transactions by 9% to 4,764.

There was a 53% plunge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 12.58mn equities, 22% in value to QR17.3mn and 26% in deals to 416.

The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 45% to 1.36mn stocks and value by 57% to QR4.57mn, while transactions were up 10% to 191.

The insurance sector reported a 40% shrinkage in trade volume to 2.83mn shares, 32% in value to QR7.56mn and 25% in deals to 217.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume tanked 30% to 24.5mn equities, whereas value increased 31% to QR106.06mn and transactions by 16% to 1,837.

The industrials sector saw a 14% decline in trade volume to 12.39mn stocks but on a 26% jump in value to QR32.89mn despite 3% lower deals at 974.

However, the telecom sector’s trade volume soared 65% to 3.54mn shares to more than double value to QR10.27mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 506.

The market witnessed a 41% surge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 4.92mn equities, 46% in value to QR31.48mn and 7% in deals to 623.

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


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