Qatar bourse snaps 7-day winning run

07/09/2010 00:00 AST

Qatar’s bourse yesterday snapped a seven-day rally as the market dipped 0.47% to retreat below the 7,500 mark, mainly on corrections in banking and industrial stocks.

Mid and large cap stocks witnessed modest selling pressure as the 20-stock benchmark settled at 7,435.62 points.

The market is however up 6.89% year-to-date.

Masraf Al Rayan, Industries Qatar, Qatar Telecom, Commercialbank and Qatar Islamic Bank were among the prime losers.

Local retail investors were increasingly profit-takers and domestic institutions largely stayed on the sidelines ahead of Eid holidays. The bourse will be closed from September 12 to 14 for the Eid al-Fitr holidays, according to a circular issued by the Qatar Central Bank.

Industrial stocks fell 0.72%, followed by services (0.54%) and banks and financial institutions (0.41%), while insurance gained 0.63%.

Of the 42 stocks, 18 gained, while 14 declined, seven were unchanged and three were not traded.

Market capitalisation rose 0.04% or QR15mn to QR394.54bn mainly on 0.62% and 0.16% gains in small and micro cap equities respectively. Total trading volume fell 32% to 5.31mn equities, value by 23% to QR169.94mn and transactions by 10% to 2,804.

The Banks and financial institutions sector saw its trading volume plummet 40% to 1.99mn equities, value by 34% to QR55.26mn and deals by 19% to 750.

The services sector saw its trading volume plunge 28% to 2.69mn stocks, value by 28% to QR69.20mn and transactions by 11% to 1,471.

The industrial sector’s trading volume fell 19% to 0.56mn shares whereas value gained 7% to QR42.21mn and deals by 2% to 489.

The insurance sector’s trading volume however doubled to 0.06mn shares, value by 97% to QR3.27mn and transactions more than doubled to 94.

Local retail investors’ bearish grip strengthened as their net selling surged to 13.36% from 6.31% in the previous day.

A lower 42% of them were into buying stocks against 46.01% on Sunday, while a higher 55.36% into offloading compared with 52.32%.

Non-Qatari individual investors continued to be profit-takers but with lesser intensity as their net selling fell to 2.20% from 4.81% in the previous day.

A higher 15.17% of them purchased equities against 10.53% on Sunday and a higher 17.37% sold compared with 15.34%.

Local institutions’ bearish grip considerably eased as their net selling tanked to 1.38% from 10.25% in the previous day.

A lower 6.26% of them bought equities against 13.29% on Sunday and a much lower 7.64% sold compared with 23.54%.

Foreign institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as their net buying fell to 16.95% from 21.38% in the previous day.

A higher 36.57% of them were into buying against 30.18% on Sunday and a higher 19.62% into selling compared with 8.80%.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Rayan (1.40mn shares), Nakilat (752,517), Vodafone Qatar (483,947), National Leasing (474,273) and Barwa (382,375).

Gulf Times