The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday largely remained flat amidst buying interests in the insurance and banking counters.

The non-Qatari individuals and the Gulf funds were increasingly net buyers as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled mere 0.01% higher at 10,442.01 points.

Non-Qatari funds continued to be net profit takers but with lesser vigour in the market, which is up 0.16% year-to-date.

Market capitalisation saw QR14mn or 0.02% shrinkage to QR579.47bn mainly owing to microcap segments.

Islamic stocks were seen declining vis-à-vis marginal gains in the other indices on the bourse, where domestic funds were increasingly net sellers.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase on the bourse, where banking sector alone accounted for about 44% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index was up 0.01% to 19,214.19 points and All Share Index by 0.02% to 3,100.32 points, while Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) was down 0.15% to 2,301.04 points.

The insurance index gained 0.72% and banks and financial services 0.28%; while consumer goods declined 0.75%, transport (0.53%), industrials (0.37%), real estate (0.34%) and telecom (0.02%).

Major movers included Qatar Insurance, Al Khaleej Takaful, Qatar First Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, QIIB and Qatari Investors Group; while Qatar German Company for Medical Devices, Qatar Electricity and Water, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ooredoo, Ezdan and Nakilat were among the losers.

The Gulf institutions’ net buying increased influentially to QR8.97mn compared to QR5.22mn on January 29.

Non-Qatari individuals’ net buying also grew considerably to QR5.67mn against QR1.11mn the previous day.

The Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.04mn compared with net sellers of QR0.3mn on Wednesday.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking declined significantly to QR3.85mn against QRR9.47mn on January 29.

However, domestic funds’ net selling grew substantially to QR18.79mn compared to QR5.85mn the previous day.

Local retail investors’ net buying weakened noticeably to QR6.98mn against QR9.28mn on Wednesday.

Total trade volumes grew 37% to 84.91mn shares, value by 45% to QR267.62mnm and transactions by 23% to 6,239.

The telecom sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 11.47mn equities and value more than tripled to QR25.35mn on 23% jump in deals to 409.

The transport sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 3.83mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR9.57mn on almost five-fold growth in transactions to 281.

The insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.83mn shares and value more than tripled to QR9.68mn on more than doubled deals to 296.

The banks and financial services sector saw 55% surge in trade volume to 37.34mn equities, 71% dip in value to QR159.24mn and 32% in transactions to 3,167.

The real estate sector’s trade volume soared 46% to 12.55mn stocks, value by 81% to QR15.38mn and deals by 9% to 402.

However, the consumer goods sector reported 66% plunge in trade volume to 3.74mn shares and 50% in value to QR16.65mn but 20% expansion in transactions to 675.

The industrials sector’s trade volume was down 5% to 12.14mn equities, value by 10% to QR31.74mn and deals by 20% to 919.

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




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