A higher than average demand in the transport, industrials and telecom counters Sunday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange, which otherwise witnessed intermittent gyrations.
The Arab and foreign individuals were seen bullish as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 13 points or 0.12% higher at 10,933.06 points, recovering from an intraday low of 10,910 points.
The foreign institutions continued to be net buyers but with lesser intensity in the market, whose year-to-date gains were at 4.76%.
The local retail investors’ weakened net selling pressure had its effect in the bourse, whose capitalisation saw QR50mn or 0.08% increase to QR635.44bn mainly due to microcap segments.
However, domestic funds were increasingly net sellers in the market, which saw the industrials sector alone constitute about 50% of the total trading volume.
The overall trade turnover declined amidst marginally higher volumes in the bourse, where the Gulf funds’ net buying weakened considerably.
The Islamic index was seen gaining slower than the other indices in the market, which saw a total of 58,186 exchange traded funds (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored QATR and Doha Bank sponsored QETF) valued at QR577,504 change hands across nine deals; while in the debt market, there was no trading of sovereign bonds and treasury bills.
The Total Return Index was up 0.12% to 21,642.65 points and All Share Index by 0.07% to 3,486.64 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.03% to 2,486.03 points.
The transport sector index expanded 0.25%, industrials and telecom (0.14% each) and banks and financial services (0.1%); while consumer goods and services declined 0.31%, real estate (0.13%) and insurance (0.07%).
More than 52% of the traded constituents extended gains with major movers being Investment Holding Group, Doha Insurance, Gulf International Services, Milaha, Qamco, Commercial Bank, Inma Holding and Baladna.
Nevertheless, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Mannai Corporation, Ezdan, Alijarah Holding, al khaliji, Aamal Company, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.
The Arab individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR7.62mn against net sellers of QR4.14mn on August 12.
Foreign individuals were net buyers to the extent of QR2.43mn compared with net sellers of QR7.35mn last Thursday.
Qatari individuals’ net selling fell significantly to QR11.58mn against QR37.22mn the previous trading day.
However, the domestic funds’ net selling rose drastically to QR40.37mn compared to QR12.79mn on August 12.
The Arab funds’ net profit booking strengthened marginally to QR0.22mn against QR0.19mn last Thursday.
Foreign institutions’ net buying declined notably to QR40.99mn compared to QR47.89mn the previous day.
The Gulf funds’ net buying weakened considerably to QR0.82mn against QR13.53mn on August 12.
The Gulf individuals’ net buying fell slightly to QR0.31mn compared to QR0.33mn last Thursday.
Total trade volume rose less than 1% to 210.77mn shares, while value fell 28% to QR356.89mn and transactions by 23% to 7,811.
The banks and financial services sector saw 58% plunge in trade volume to 17.99mn equities, 66% in value to QR66.18mn and 41% in deals to 2,389.
The insurance’s trade volume plummeted 18% to 1mn stocks, value by 43% to QR3.07mn and transactions by 44% to 83.
There was 14% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 22.02mn shares, 21% in value to QR26.67mn and 20% in deals to 606.
The telecom sector’s trade volume was down 4% to 2.07mn equities, value by 53% to QR3.57mn and transactions by 68% 89.
The market witnessed 77% surge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 5.19mn stocks, more than tripling value to QR33.33mn but on 26% dip in deals to 313.
The consumer goods and services sector’s trade volume soared 42% to 58.11mn shares and value by 3% to QR70.88mn; while transactions were down 1% to 1,415.
The industrials sector saw 10% jump in trade volume to 104.4mn equities but on 14% contraction in value to QR153.19mn and 5% in deals to 2,916.