Qatar bourse snaps 2-day gains on realty, telecom stocks

The Qatar Exchange weakened yesterday, after two days of bull-run, mainly dragged down by realty and telecom stocks.

Local retail investors had lesser penchant for buying as the QE Index (based on price data) fell 0.40% to 8,474.83 points.

The market is, however, down 3.47% year-to-date.

The All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) and the Total Return Index also shrank 0.29% and 0.40% to 2,039.55 and 11,469.51 points respectively. Both the indices factored in dividend income as well.

About 62% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Qatari Investors Group, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat; even as Aamal Company, Commercialbank and Salam International Investment bucked the trend. Under the All Share Index category, the real estate index plunged 1.62%, followed by telecom (0.66%), transport (0.42%), insurance (0.31%) and banks and financial services (0.23%); while consumer goods rose 0.34%. The industrials index was flat.

Market capitalisation fell 0.19% or QR87mn to QR454.06bn with small, mid and large cap equities melting 0.49%, 0.31% and 0.29% respectively.

Of the 42 stocks, only 10 gained, while 26 declined and three were unchanged. Three others were not traded.

Non-Qatari retail investors continued to be bullish, but with lesser vigour, as their net buying fell to 2.53% from 3.13% the previous day.

A lower 20.09% of them were into buying compared to 22.02% on Monday and a marginally lower 17.56% were into offloading against 18.89%.

Qatari individual investors were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling soared to 6.75% from 2.59% the previous day.

A lower 48.30% of them purchased equities compared to 54.63% on Monday and a lower 55.05% sold against 57.22%.

Domestic institutions turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 4.08% compared with net sellers of 0.11% the previous day.

A higher 24.57% of them bought equities compared to 17.37% on Monday and higher 20.49% offloaded against 17.48%.

Foreign institutions were marginally bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 0.15% compared with net sellers of 0.43% the previous day.

A higher 7.04% of them were into buying against 5.98% on Monday and a marginally higher 6.89% of them into selling compared to 6.41%.

Total trading volume fell 16% to 13.59mn equities, value by 14% to QR297.05mn and deals by 15% to 4,297.

The telecom sector’s trading volume plummeted 58% to 1.19mn shares, value by 57% to QR12.55mn and transactions by 52% to 339.

The real estate sector’s trading volume plunged 44% to 1.78mn shares, value by 49% to QR28.53mn and deals by 30% to 534.

The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume tanked 27% to 2.18mn shares, value by 30% to QR58.19mn and transactions by 19% to 860.

However, the insurance sector’s trading volume tripled to 0.03mn shares and value almost quadrupled to QR1.83mn on more than tripled deals to 59.

The industrials sector’s trading volume surged 22% to 4.77mn shares, value by 15% to QR130.98mn and transactions by 6% to 1,388.

The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume gained 16% to 3.08mn shares and value by 3% to QR55.65mn, whereas deals were down 4% to 838.

The transport sector’s trading volume was up 8% to 0.56mn shares, while value lost 13% to QR9.30mn and transactions by 10% to 279.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Qatari Investors Group (4.19mn shares); SIIL (2.55mn); Mazaya Qatar (1.29mn); Vodafone Qatar (1.17mn) and al khaliji (1.14mn).