Qatar bourse crosses 9,000 mark

07/01/2011 00:00 AST

Qatar’s bourse crossed the 9,000 mark yesterday, mainly paced by Islamic banking stocks.

Led by mid and large cap equities, the 20-stock benchmark rose 0.23% to 9,019.26 points. The market is up 3.89% year-to-date.

Institutional investors turned net buyers yesterday as retail investors booked profits albeit at lower levels.

Among the gainers were Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), International Islamic and Qatar Electricity and Water Company.

Market capitalisation rose 0.15% or QR67mn to QR462.72bn mainly on 0.44% and 0.15% gains in mid and large cap equities.

The banks and financial institutions sector saw its group index rise 0.38%, followed by industries (0.28%) and insurance (0.11%), while services fell 0.02%.

Of the 43 stocks, 21 gained, while 13 declined, five were unchanged and four were not traded.

Total trading volume fell 17% to 9.91mn equities, value by 21% to QR421.97mn and transactions by 22% to 5,187.

The industrial sector witnessed a 43% plunge in trading volume to 0.64mn shares, value by 57% to QR29.55mn and deals by 52% to 481.

Banks and financial institutions trading volume dropped 17% to 2.79mn equities, value by 15% to QR152.29mn and transactions by 13% to 1,782.

The insurance sector’s trading volume shrank 14% to 0.19mn shares, value by 2% to QR14.37mn and deals by 19% to 186.

The services sector’s trading volume fell 13% to 6.28mn, value by 14% to QR225.77mn and transactions by 19% to 2,738.

Foreign institutions were net buyers to the tune of 3.29% as a higher 21.28% of them were into buying compared with 17.99% into selling.

Domestic institutions were also net buyers to the extent of 2.13% as a higher 19.45% bought equities against 17.32% of those who sold.

Qatari individual investors were net sellers to the tune of 3.43% as a lower 47.28% of them were into buying compared with 50.71% into selling.

Foreign retail investors were net sellers to the extent of 2% as a lower 11.98% of them bought stocks against 13.98% of those who offloaded.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were National Leasing (1.84mn shares): Masraf Al Rayan (868,799); QIB (828,952); Nakilat (802,493) and Gulf Warehousing (784,273).

Gulf Times