The Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday witnessed four of the seven sectors under buying spotlight; yet it settled almost flat.
Foreign funds’ stronger net buying notwithstanding, the 20-stock Qatar Index was up a mere 0.02% to 10.863.27 points, having recovered from an intraday low of 10,797 points.
The Arab individuals were seen marginally bullish on the market, whose year-to-date gains were at 4.09%.
Local retail investors and domestic funds were nevertheless increasingly net sellers on the bourse, whose capitalisation saw about QR2bn or 0.29% increase to QR626.54bn, mainly led by microcap segments.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase on the market, where the Islamic equities were seen declining against marginal gains in the other indices.
Both Gulf individuals and funds turned net profit takers on the market, where the banking, industrials and consumer goods sectors together accounted for about 77% of the total trading volume.
A total of 224,960 exchange traded funds (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored QATR and Doha Bank sponsored QETF) valued at QR625,554 changed hands across 31 deals; while in the debt market, there was no trading of sovereign bonds and treasury bills.
The Total Return Index was up 0.02% to 20,884.28 points and All Share Index by 0.1% to 3,327.15 points; while Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) fell 0.04% to 2,459.05 points.
The insurance index gained 1.16%, industrials (0.7%), real estate (0.63%) and transport (0.5%); while telecom declined 0.45%, banks and financial services (0.22%) and consumer goods and services (0.07%).
Major gainers included Qatari German Medical Devices, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Ahlibank Qatar, Inma Holding, United Development Company, Mannai Corporation, Industries Qatar, Nakilat and Qatari Investors Group; even as QLM, Qatar First Bank, Gulf International Services, Investment Holding Group and Ooredoo were among the losers.
The foreign funds’ net buying increased substantially to QR144.85mn compared to QR4.24mn on January 17.
The Arab individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR2.39mn against net sellers of QR0.37mn the previous day.
The Arab institutions were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.02mn compared with no major exposure on Sunday.
However, Qatari retail investors’ net selling grew significantly to QR99.18mn against QR15.12mn on January 17.
The domestic funds’ net selling rose considerably to QR48.86mn compared to QR15.63mn the previous day.
The Gulf funds turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.12mn against net buyers of QR23.13mn on Sunday.
The Gulf individuals were net sellers to the extent of QR0.17mn compared with net buyers of QR1.43mn on January 17.
The foreign individuals’ net buying eased perceptibly to QR1.05mn against QR2.34mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 74% to 166.16mn shares and value more than doubled to QR581.72mn on 73% increase in transactions to 9,127.
The consumer goods and services sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 31.56mn equities and value more than quadrupled to QR84.56mn on more than doubled deals to 1,197.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 5.3mn stocks and value more than quadrupled to QR31.88mn on more than doubled transactions to 740.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 61.35mn shares and value more than tripled to QR313.3mn on more than doubled deals to 3,723.
The transport sector reported 92% surge in trade volume to 6.82mn equities and 87% in value to QR33.07mn on more than tripled transactions to 516.
The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 35% to 34.49mn stocks, while value was down less than 1% to QR62.92mn despite 7% higher deals at 1,438.
There was 5% jump in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 6.7mn shares and 13% in value to QR22.37mn but on 12% shrinkage in transactions to 450.
However, the realty sector’s trade volume was down 3% to 19.96mn equities, while value grew 7% to QR33.62mn and deals by 24% to 1,063.
