17/06/2015 00:49 AST
Insurance and telecom stocks on Tuesday dragged the Qatar Stock Exchange and its key index retreated below the 11,900 levels.
Local retail investors’ bearish grip and increased net selling of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions and retail investors as well as non-Qatari individuals led the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.25% to 11,873.55 points amid rising volumes.
Lower buying interests of foreign institutions also played a part in the overall bearish spell in the market, which is down 3.36% year-to-date.
Shariah-principled stocks fell slower than the other equities in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the realty and telecom sectors, whose stocks together constituted about 60% of overall trading volume.
Market capitalisation shed 0.22% or more than QR1bn to QR632.1bn with micro, large and mid cap equities losing 0.4%, 0.32% and 0.25% respectively.
The Total Return Index fell 0.25% to 18,452.11 points, All Share Index by 0.19% to 3,180.76 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.18% to 4,623.28 points.
Insurance stocks plunged 1.46%, telecom (1.25%), banks and financial services (0.24%), industrials (0.06%) and consumer goods (0.03%); whereas real estate and transport stocks rose 0.32% and 0.01% respectively.
More than 56% of the stocks were in the red with influential losers being Qatar Insurance, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Industries Qatar, QNB, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Alijarah Holding, Gulf International Services, United Development Company and Widam Food.
However, Ezdan, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Nakilat, Mannai Corporation and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices bucked the trend.
Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR2.77mn against net buyers of QR27.44mn on Monday.
The GCC individual investors’ net selling strengthened to QR7.71mn compared to QR2.98mn on June 15.
The GCC institutions’ net profit booking also increased to QR5.14mn against QR2.6mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling swelled to QR3.79mn compared to QR0.57mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened to QR3.67mn against QR13.64mn on June 15.
However, domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR15.75mn compared with net sellers of QR34.95mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 13% to 5.59mn shares, while value fell 2% to QR208.28mn. Deals increased 39% to 3,586.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 0.81mn equities and value more than tripled to QR28.55mn on more than doubled transactions to 576.
The industrials sector’s trade volume doubled to 0.64mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR36.16mn on more than doubled deals to 921.
The transport sector’s trade volume doubled to 0.04mn shares and value more than doubled to QR1.49mn on 85% jump in transactions to 61.
The banks and financial services sector reported 58% surge in trade volume to 0.71mn equities, 39% in value to QR52.49mn and 2% in deals to 578.
The telecom sector’s trade volume expanded 15% to 1.58mn stocks, value by 20% to QR37.93mn and transactions by 40% to 705.
However, the market witnessed 75% plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.04mn shares, 82% in value to QR2.8mn and 48% in deals to 36.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 28% to 1.77mn equities and value by 51% to QR48.86mn, while transactions were up 5% to 709.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
Ramadan timing
Qatar Stock Exchange has announced that its trading hours will remain unchanged during Ramadan.
The trading hours will continue to be from 09:30 to 13:15 with a pre-opening session starting at 09:00 and ending at 09:30.
For all other business and services, official working hours will be from 08:30 to 13:30, a bourse spokesman said.
Gulf Times
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