The Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday snapped six days of bearish spell and its key barometer rose 43 points, mainly lifted by real estate and telecom sectors.

Non-Qatari individuals turned bullish and there was substantially weakened net selling by foreign funds as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.47% higher at 9,258.69 points, although it touched a high of 9,397 points in the first 15 minutes of opening.

Local retail investors were seen net profit takers on the market, which is down 11.19% year-to-date.

Market capitalisation saw about QR4bn or 0.69% growth to QR512.89bn mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.

Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster than the other indices on the bourse, where domestic institutions continued to be net buyers but with lesser intensity.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where realty, banking and industrials sectors together accounted for more than 76% of the total trading volume.

The Total Return Index rose 0.47% to 17,325.84 points, All Share Index by 0.63% to 2,806.78 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.78% to 1,998.42 points.

The real estate index soared 1.62%, telecom (1.52%), transport (0.91%), banks and financial services (0.83%) and consumer goods (0.29%); while insurance and industrials declined 0.81% and 0.06% respectively.

About 74% of the traded constituents extended gains with major movers being Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Ooredoo, Nakilat, Doha Bank, QIIB, Qatar First Bank, Qatar National Cement, Qatari Investors Group, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Dlala and Medicare Group, whereas Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Milaha, Commercial Bank, Qatar German Company for Medical Devices and Qatar Industrial Manufacturing were among the losers.

Non-Qatari individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR4.68mn compared with net sellers of QR6.46mn on March 2.

Non-Qatari funds’ net profit booking declined considerably to QR7.95mn against QR145.74mn the previous day.

However, the Gulf funds’ net selling grew significantly to QR23.75mn compared to QR1.35mn on Monday.

Local retail investors were seen net sellers to the extent of QR6.14mn against net buyers of QR37.92mn on March 2.

The Gulf individuals’ net profit booking rose noticeably to QR1.72mn compared to QR0.32mn the previous day.

Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened substantially to QR343.91mn against QR116.46mn on Monday.

Total trade volumes fell 41% to 96.3mn shares, value by 41% to QR286.89mn and transactions by 26% to 7,904.

The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 65% to 2.24mn equities, value by 50% QR7.48mn and deals by 26% to 180.

The telecom sector reported 64% plunge in trade volume to 4.83mn stocks, 52% in value to QR23.14mn and 43% in transactions to 990.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume tanked 51% to 23.25mn shares, value by 46% to QR138.05mn and deals by 31% to 2,668.

There was 40% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 28.97mn equities, 39% in value to QR27.39mn and 23% in transactions to 1,036.

The industrials sector’s trade volume shrank 32% to 21.17mn stocks, value by 27% to QR54.29mn and deals by 11% to 1,954.

There was 25% contraction in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 9.05mn shares, 25% in value to QR22.71mn and 21% in transactions to 724.

However, the insurance sector’s trade volume shot up 38% to 6.63mn equities and value by 16% to QR13.84mn, while deals were down 11% to 352.

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


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