Strong buying interests, especially in insurance, telecom and industrials, yesterday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange above 8,300 levels.
The weakened selling pressure from foreign funds had a considerable say in the 80 points or about 1% jump in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 8,310.87 points, although it touched a high of 8,323 points intraday.
The domestic institutions continued to be net buyers but with lesser intensity on the market, whose year-to-date losses were trimmed to 20.28%.
Market capitalisation saw more than QR5bn or 1.17% expansion to QR466.64bn mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining slower than the main barometer on the bourse, where the Gulf funds were increasingly bearish.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where real estate sector, banking and industrials sectors together accounted for more than 85% of the total trading volume.
The Total Return Index rose 0.98% to 15,679.5 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 1.01% to 1,813.21 points and All Share Index by 0.75% to 2,543.77 points.
The insurance index soared 4.2%, industrials (1.86%), telecom (1.63%), transport (0.79%), realty (0.52%), consumer goods (0.36%) and banks and financial services (0.23%).
About 69% of the traded constituents extended gains with major movers being Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Electricity and Water, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat, Ezdan, Qatar National Cement, QIIB, Masraf Al Rayan, Mannai Corporation and Medicare Group; even as Gulf Warehousing, Zad Holding, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Al Khaliji and United Development Company were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net selling decreased considerably to QR15.32mn compared to QR98.25mn on March 12.
However, the Gulf funds’ net profit booking rose substantially to QR34.15mn against QR3.45mn last Thursday.
Qatari investors’ net selling grew significantly to QR24.19mn compared to QR8.7mn the previous trading day.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR11.72mn against net buyers of QR1.11mn on March 12.
The Gulf individuals’ net selling grew marginally to QR0.96mn compared to QR0.55mn last Thursday.
Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened perceptibly to QR86.37mn against QR109.81mn the previous trading day.
Total trade volumes lost 19% to 159.64mn shares, value by 27% to QR310.14mn and transactions by 25% to 6,779.
There was 71% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 4.93mn equities, 68% in value to QR10.83mn and 55% in deals to 191.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 35% to 9.9mn stocks, value by 56% to QR32.58mn and transactions by 40% to 821.
The insurance sector reported 34% shrinkage in trade volume to 2.16mn shares, 37% in value to QR4.07mn and 11% in deals to 186.
The banks and financial services sectors’ trade volume tanked 29% to 28.13mn equities, value by 25% to QR138.06mn and transactions by 42% to 2,076.
The industrials sector saw 21% contraction in trade volume to 25.34mn stocks, 18% in value to QR40.15mn and 23% in deals to 1,115.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was fell 2% to 82.33mn shares, value by 9% to QR58.05mn and transactions by 17% to 1,211.
The weakened selling pressure from foreign funds had a considerable say in the 80 points or about 1% jump in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 8,310.87 points, although it touched a high of 8,323 points intraday yesterday.
