An across the board selling — especially in the real estate, telecom and transport sectors — on Thursday dragged the Qatar Stock Exchange about 1%.

The Gulf institutions turned net profit takers as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 93 points lower at 10,204.62 points, although it had fallen below 10,200 levels intraday.

Domestic funds continued to be net sellers but with lesser vigour on the market, which is down 2.12% year-to-date.

Market capitalisation saw more than QR6bn or 1.06% erosion to QR568.35bn mainly owing to large and midcap segments.

Islamic stocks were seen declining faster than the other indices on the bourse, where local retail investors and foreign funds were increasingly net buyers.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase on the bourse, where real estate and banking sectors together accounted for more than 59% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index fell 0.9% to 18,777.37 points, All Share Index by 1.04% to 3,034.45 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 1.32% to 2,234.35 points.

The real estate index plummeted 5.12%, telecom (3.23%), transport (2.99%), consumer goods (0.84%), insurance (0.69%), banks and financial services (0.66%) and industrials (0.51%).

More than 84% of the traded constituents were in the red with major losers being United Development Company, Barwa, Ooredoo, Gulf Warehousing, Nakilat, Milaha, Vodafone Qatar, QNB, Dlala, Medicare Group, Qatari Investors Group, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding; even as Industries Qatar, Doha Bank and Qatar Islamic Bank were among the gainers.

The Gulf institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR31.76mn compared with net buyers of QR0.07mn on February 5.

However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying grew influentially to QR41.36mn against QR34.78mn the previous day.

Local retail investors’ net buying increased significantly to QR20.47mn compared to QR9.4mn on Wednesday.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying rose noticeably to QR4.03mn against QR3.01mn on February 5.

Domestic institutions’ net selling declined considerably to QR33.58mn compared to QR45.37mn the previous day.

The Gulf individuals’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR0.58mn against QR1.91mn on Wednesday.

Total trade volumes grew 47% to 79.88mn shares, value by 27% to QR275.93mn and transactions by 36% to 7,067.

The real estate sector’s trade volume almost tripled 26.47mn equities and value rose more than five-fold to QR55.28mn on more than doubled deals to 822.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 13.77mn stocks, value soared 56% to QR26.55mn and transactions by 1% to 729.

The banks and financial services sector saw 16% surge in trade volume to 20.71mn shares, 1% in value to QR137.39mn and 23% in deals to 3,037.

The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 13% to 11.75mn equities, value by 11% to QR29.97mn and transactions by 31% to 1,097.

There was 1% jump in the transport sector’s trade volume to 2.64mn stocks, 7% in value to QR7.82mn and 39% in deals to 275.

However, the telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 57% to 3.64mn shares, while value grew 3% to QR16.48mn on more than doubled transactions to 966.

The insurance sector reported 1% dip in trade volume to 0.91mn equities, 9% in value to QR2.44mn and 3% in deals to 141.

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


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