DSM index rises by 145.65 points

A buying spree from foreign institutional investors pushed the Qatari stocks up. The equity market witnessed buoyancy for the third straight trading day yesterday. The 20-stock benchmark index of the Doha Securities Market (DSM) was up 145.65 points, or 2.78 per cent, to 5,379.49 with the market capitalization touching almost QR230bn mark (QR229.08bn).

Net buying from non-Qatari institutional investors, among them, corporate investors and asset managers, peaked at a historic high of QR108.3m as against small sell volumes worth QR41.7m. Sell volumes of all other categories of investors, including Qatari and foreign retail as well as Qatari institutional investors, were much higher than their net buying.

Overall, local investors, both small and corporate, offloaded more shares and their net buying fell to 60.61 percent as against sell percentage of over 68.

The services counters were the top performers with a 4.09 percent surge followed by the banking sector which registered a 3.36 per cent gain. Industrial stocks were the only ones which suffered a minor setback, showing a 0.66 per cent loss.

A record 33 shares advanced at the close of yesterday’s trading with only six falling. Major gainers were Alkhaliji, Doha Bank, Commercial Bank of Qatar, Gulf Insurance, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company, Qatar Cement, Qatar German Medical Devices Company and Zad.