The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday snapped four days of bullish run to lose as much as 41 points and settle below 9,000 points, mainly dragged by increased selling pressure from the Gulf funds.

An across-the-board buying, particularly in insurance, led the 20-stock Qatar Index settle 0.45% lower at 8,989.75 points. The market had touched a low of 8,986 points within the first 30 minutes of opening and thereafter it was on the high of 9,075 minutes for the next 90 minutes.

The weakened net buying interests of the non-Qatari and domestic funds also played its part on the bourse, whose year-to-date losses rose to 13.77%.

Market capitalisation saw about QR2bn or 0.37% decline to QR508.57bn mainly owing to small and microcap segments.

Islamic stocks were seen gaining declining slower than the other indices on the market, where the local retail investors continued to be net buyers but with lesser intensity.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the market, where industrials and realty sectors together accounted for about 72% of the total trading volume.

The Total Return Index shed 0.45% to 17,191.66 points, All Share Index by 0.35% to 2,800.79 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.05% to 1,943.81 points.

The insurance index tanked 4.07%, industrials (0.92%), realty (0.63%) and consumer goods and services (0.34%); whereas telecom and transport gained 0.22% and 0.12% respectively. The banks and financial services index was flat.

Major losers included Qatar Insurance, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, United Development Company, Commercial Bank, Medicare Group, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company and Nakilat; while Qatar Islamic Bank, Islamic Holding Group, Mannai Corporation, Qatar German Company for Medical Devices, Baladna, Gulf International Services, Ezdan and Gulf Warehousing were among the gainers.

The Gulf institutions’ net buying increased significantly to QR5.52mn compared to QR0.37mn on April 8.

Non-Qatari funds’ net buying declined noticeably to QR25.5mn against QR49.18mn the previous day.

Domestic institutions’ net buying shrank noticeably to QR1.42mn compared to QR3.1mn on Wednesday.

The Gulf individuals’ net buying eased marginally to QR0.06mn against QR0.43mn on April 8.

However, non-Qataris were net buyers to the extent of QR4.07mn compared with net sellers of QR7.9mn the previous day.

Qataris’ net selling weakened significantly to QR25.53mn against QR44.52mn on Wednesday.

Total trade volumes fell 14% to 165.7mn shares and value by 15% to QR284.6mn, while transactions were up 3% to 11,189.

The insurance sector's trade volume plummeted 69% to 1.24mn equities, value by 52% to QR3.44mn and deals by 43% to 164.

The industrials sector reported 36% plunge in trade volume to 61.75mn stocks, 32% in value to QR79.82mn and 3% in transactions to 3,641.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume tanked 33% to 15.02 shares and value by 23% to QR87.41mn, whereas deals were up 2% to 3,096.

There was 8% shrinkage in the consumer goods and services sector's trade volume to 20.07mn equities, 15% in value to QR30.88mn and 14% in transactions to 1,091.

However, the real estate sector’s trade volume soared 47% to 57.09mn stocks, value by 31% to QR43.45mn and deals by 33% to 1,383.

The telecom sector saw 17% surge in trade volume to 6.49mn shares, 94% in value to QR28.75mn and 39% in transactions to 1,324.

The transport sector’s trade volume was flat at 4.03mn equities and value also flat at QR10.86mn, while deals were down 2% to 490.

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




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