The Qatar Stock Exchange snapped two days of bullish run to settle 51 points lower mainly dragged by insurance, telecom, banking and consumer goods.
Domestic funds’ substantially strengthened net selling led the 20-stock Qatar Index to shed 0.58% to 8,750.32 points. The country’s first exchange traded fund QETF saw 0.86% decline.
Gulf institutions and individuals were seen profit takers in the market, which is, however, up 2.66% year-to-date.
Islamic stocks gained much slower than the main index on the bourse, which however saw local retail investors turn bullish and there was lower net selling by non-Qatari individuals.
Micro, large and midcap equities witnessed stronger selling pressure in the market, whose capitalisation eroded 1.08% to QR475.29bn.
Trade turnover declined amidst higher volumes on the bourse, where banking, industrials and insurance sectors together accounted for more than 67% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index fell 0.58% to 15,242.41 points, All Share Index by 1.02% to 2,513.62 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.14% to 3,571.65 points.
The insurance index plummeted 5.81%, telecom (1.83%), banks and financial services (1.24%), consumer goods (1.21%), industrials (0.36% and transport (0.18%); whereas realty gained 0.7%.
About 59% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Qatar Insurance, Al Khaleej Takaful, QNB, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Nakilat, Al Khaliji, Zad Holding and Medicare Group; whereas Doha Bank, Ahli Bank, Qatar First Bank, Barwa, United Development Company and Milaha were among the gainers.
Domestic funds’ net profit booking strengthened considerably to QR71.1mn against QR9.42mn the previous day.
The Gulf institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR15.98mn compared with net buyers of QR9.63mn on Tuesday.
The Gulf individuals were also net sellers to the extent of QR1.08mn against net buyers of QR0.42mn on March 13.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying fell marginally to QR86.51mn compared to QR90.28mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR8.65mn against net sellers of QR79.77mn on Tuesday.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR6.95mn compared to QR11.08mn on March 13.
Total trade volume rose 28% to 18.03mn shares, while value fell 10% to QR469.9mn despite 1% jump in transactions to 5,911.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than nine-fold to 3.21mn equities and value by more than eight-fold to QR99.76mn on more than tripled deals to 983.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 1.93mn stocks and value also more than tripled to QR47.57mn on 20% rise in transactions to 425.
The banks and financial services sector saw 32% surge in trade volume to 5.57mn shares but on 44% decline in value to QR158.14mn and 14% in deals to 1,893.
The real estate sector’s trade volume soared 24% to 2.86mn equities and value by 36% to QR50.69mn on about five-fold growth in transactions to 1,054.
However, there was 39% plunge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.82mn stocks, 46% in value to QR15.23mn and 31% in deals to 340.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 38% to 0.25mn shares, value by 1% to QR19.51mn and transactions by 7% to 357.
There was 32% shrinkage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 3.39mn equities, 36% in value to QR78.99mn and 30% in deals to 859.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
