The Qatar Stock Exchange Thursday gained about 13 points on the back of foreign institutions’ strong buying interests.The insurance, consumer goods, banking, real estate and telecom counters saw higher than average demand as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 0.11% to 11,515.81 points, recovering from an intraday low of 11,427 points.The Gulf institutions were seen increasingly net buyers in the main bourse, whose capitalisation added QR0.32bn or 0.05% to QR686.55bn mainly on microcap segments.The Gulf individuals turned bullish in the main market, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the rise.The local retail investors’ weakened net selling had its influence on the main market, which saw as many as 2,179 exchange traded funds (sponsored by AlRayan Bank and Doha Bank) valued at QR6,546 trade across five deals.However, the domestic institutions were seen net profit takers in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.The Islamic index was seen outperforming the other indices in the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills.The Total Return Index rose 0.2%, the All Share Index by 0.22% and the All Islamic Index by 0.29% in the main bourse.The insurance sector index shot up 0.66%, consumer goods and services (0.63%), banks and financial services (0.54%), realty (0.42%) and telecom (0.32%); while industrials and transport declined 0.98% and 0.05% respectively.As many as 22 gained, while 27 declined and four were unchanged.Major gainers in the main market included Widam Food, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Dukhan Bank, QIIB, Qamco, Qatar Islamic Bank, Woqod, Qatar Insurance and Vodafone Qatar.In the juniour bourse, Techno Q saw its shares appreciate in value.Nevertheless, about 51% of the traded constituents were in the red with major losers being QLM, Industries Qatar, Mannai Corporation, Doha Bank, Mekdam Holding, Aamal Company, Mazaya Qatar and Nakilat.The foreign institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR556.2mn against QR58.24mn the previous day.The Gulf institutions’ net buying strengthened noticeably to QR14.29mn compared to QR6.84mn on February 11.The Gulf individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.18mn against net sellers of QR5.41mn on Wednesday.The local retail investors’ net selling declined perceptibly to QR72.56mn compared to QR83.72mn the previous day.However, the domestic funds were net sellers to the extent of QR490.08mn against net buyers of QR16.98mn on February 11.The Arab retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR5.08mn compared with net buyers of QR4.69mn on Wednesday.The foreign individuals were net profit takers to the extent of QR3.96mn against net buyers of QR2.26mn the previous day.The Arab institutions had no major net exposure compared with net sellers to the tune of QR0.14mn on February 11.The main market saw a 37% jump in trade volumes to 230.68mn shares to more than double value to QR964.09mn but on 50% contraction in deals to 21,482.In the venture market, a total of 0.79mn equities valued at QR1.64mn changed hands across 205 transactions.