The Qatar Exchange (QE) yesterday fell 1.41% with foreign institutions hurriedly squaring off their position ahead of the bourse’s reclassification by MSCI Index late today.
The 20-stock benchmark lost a sizeable 117 points to close at 8,217.32 although local institutions extended the buying support.
The market is down 5.35% year-to-date.
Industries Qatar, QNB, Commercialbank, Doha Bank, Barwa and Nakilat were among those hard hit.
Maximum selling was seen in industries, whose index fell 1.98%, followed by banks (1.55%), insurance (1.12%) and services (0.87%).
Market capitalisation lost 1.25% or about QR6bn to QR439.36bn mainly due to large and mid cap equities, which fell 1.42% and 1.07% respectively.
Of the 42 stocks, only six advanced, while 28 declined, six were unchanged and two were not traded.
Foreign institutions’ profit-booking strengthened as their net selling shot up to 27.14% from 2.89% the previous day.
Although a higher 16.01% of them were into buying compared to 10.28% on Sunday, a much higher 43.15% were into selling against 13.17%.
However, domestic institutions turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 11.01% compared with net sellers of 3.43% the previous day.
A much higher 29.41% of them bought equities against 19.48% on Sunday; while a lower 18.40% of them also sold compared to 22.91%.
Qatari individual investors were increasingly bullish as their net buying rose to 11.74% from 6.46% the previous trading day.
A much lower 41.90% of them purchased equities against 53.86% on Sunday and a much lower 30.16% sold compared to 47.40%.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 4.39% against net sellers of 0.14% the previous day.
A lower 12.68% of them were into buying compared to 16.38% on Sunday and a lower 8.29% were into offloading against 16.52%.
Total trading volume rose 13% to 6.84mn equities and value by 37% to QR257.09mn whereas deals fell 4% to 3,635.
The industrial sector’s trading volume surged 50% to 0.42mn shares, value more than quadrupled to QR46.49mn on an 82% jump in transactions to 515.
Banks’ trading volume zoomed 25% to 1.59mn equities and value by 51% to QR76.37mn but deals were down 1% to 1,128.
The services sector’s trading volume was up 8% to 4.80mn shares and value by 5% to QR132.31mn while transactions fell 16% to 1,939.
However, the insurance sector’s trading volume slipped 25% at 0.03mn shares whereas value rose 27% to QR1.92mn. Deals were static at 53.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Barwa (2.79mn shares); Masraf Al Rayan (779,491); Nakilat (774,822); Vodafone Qatar (314,872) and IQ (312,000).
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