Foreign funds and individuals were increasingly net buyers in the Qatar Stock Exchange, which on Monday added another 15 points to inch near the 11,000 levels, ahead of Eid holidays.
The increased buying from the Arab individuals also had its influence in lifting the 20-stock Qatar index by 0.14% to 10,950.72 points, recovering from an intraday low of 10,926 points.
Four of the seven sectors were under the buying spotlight in the bourse, whose year-to-date gains were at 4.93%.
Nevertheless, decliners outnumbered gainers in the market, whose capitalisation saw QR88mn or 0.14% increase to QR635.3bn, mainly owing to mid and microcap segments.
The Islamic index was seen gaining faster the main index in the market, which saw the industrials sector alone constituted more than 47% of the total trading volume.
The telecom, industrials and transport counters witnessed higher than average demand in the bourse, which saw a total of 7,447 exchange traded funds (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored QATR and Doha Bank sponsored QETF) valued at QR19,765 changed hands across five deals; while in the debt market, there was no trading of sovereign bonds and treasury bills.
The Total Return Index was up 0.14% to 21,677.61 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.33% to 2,536.06 points and All Share Index by 0.13% to 3,466.32 points.
The telecom index gained 0.6455, industrials (0.37%), transport (0.29%) and banks and financial services (0.07%); whereas insurance declined 0.25%, consumer goods and services (0.14%) and real estate (0.01%).
Major gainers included Qamco, Widam Food, Mannai Corporation, al khaliji, Vodafone Qatar, QLM, Ooredoo and Gulf Warehousing; even as Qatari Investors Group, Qatar Oman Investment, Qatar National Cement, Commercial Bank, Aamal Company and Doha Bank were among the losers.
Foreign institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR31.82mn compared to QR19.48mn on May 9.
The Arab individuals’ net buying swelled considerably to QR10.01mn against QR2.02mn the previous day.
Foreign individuals’ net buying grew perceptibly to QR2.98mn compared to QR1.94mn on Sunday.
However, local retail investors’ net profit booking increased noticeably to QR27.49mn against QR14.37mn on May 9.
The domestic funds’ net selling expanded significantly to QR18.35mn compared to QR10.59mn the previous day.
The Gulf individuals turned net sellers to the extent of QR0.22mn against net buyers of QR0.06mn on Sunday.
The Gulf institutions’ net buying weakened markedly to QR1.19mn compared to QR1.47mn on May 9.
The Arab institutions continued to have no major net exposure.
Total trade volume fell 14% to 251.71mn shares, while value grew 9% to QR541.2mn and transactions by 28% to 10,916.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 67% to 3mn equities, value by 69% to QR10.01mn and deals by 42% to 295.
The consumer goods and services sector saw 54% plunge in trade volume to 58.62mn stocks, 44% in value to QR78.14mn and 29% in transactions to 1,603.
The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 32% to 2.23mn shares, while value rose 10% to QR11.17mn on more than doubled deals to 538.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume shrank 26% to 49.78mn equities, while value was up less than 1% to QR176.72mn and transactions by 62% to 3,836.
There was 12% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 16.62mn stocks and 10% in value to QR26.09mn but on 1% jump in deals to 612.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2mn shares and value almost tripled to QR7.4mn on tripled transactions to 261.
The market witnessed 77% surge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 119.46mn equities, more than doubling value to QR231.68mn on 54% growth in deals to 3,771.
