Qatar shares edge down, extend losses to 3rd day

04/05/2011 00:00 AST

but with lesser intensity yesterday as their net selling fell to 7.17% from 8.01% in the previous day

The Qatar Exchange fell for the third day yesterday by a marginal 0.05% despite robust buying support from domestic institutions.

The 20-stock benchmark lost just four points to 8,509.87 points.

The market is down 1.96% year-to-date.

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

The indices of services and industry fell 0.52% and 0.08%; while those of insurance and banks gained 1.23% and 0.18% respectively.

Market capitalisation was down 0.10% or QR44mn to QR435.17bn on large and mid cap equities, which fell 0.36% and 0.12%. Micro and small caps gained 0.54% and 0.14% respectively.

Of the 42 stocks, only 13 gained, while 23 declined, four were unchanged and two were not traded.

Qatari individual investors continued to be profit-takers but with lesser intensity as their net selling fell to 7.17% from 8.01% in the previous day.

A lower 34.91% of them purchased equities against 40.29% on Monday and a lower 42.08% sold compared to 48.30%.

Non-Qatari retail investors turned bearish as they were net sellers to the tune of 0.38% against net buyers of 1.44% the previous day.

A lower 10.38% of them were into buying compared to 14.98% on Monday and a lower 10.76% were into offloading against 13.54%.

However, domestic institutions turned bullish that they were net buyers to the extent of 5.20% compared with net sellers of 0.85% in the previous day.

A higher 25.57% of them bought equities against 21.56% on Monday; while a lower 20.37% of them sold compared to 22.41%.

Foreign institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as their net buying fell to 2.36% from 7.42% in the previous day.

A higher 29.15% of them were into buying compared to 23.17% on Monday but a much higher 26.79% were into selling against 15.75%.

Total trading volume gained 22% to 7.93mn, value by 28% to QR304.90mn and deals by 22% to 4,852.

The industrial sector witnessed a 50% surge in trading volume to 0.60mn shares, value by 33% to QR27.62mn and transactions by 27% to 524.

The services sector’s trading volume expanded 33% to 4.88mn shares, value by 34% to QR166.39mn and deals by 32% to 2,832.

Banks’ trading volume was up 2% to 2.39mn equities, value by 20% to QR106.31mn and transactions by 10% to 1,445.

However, the insurance sector’s trading volume fell 13% to 0.07mn shares whereas value rose 5% to QR4.58mn. Deals plunged 46% to 51.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Rayan (1.60mn shares); Barwa (1.52mn); Gulf Warehousing (779,858); Nakilat (543,294) and Gulf International Services (385,911).

Gulf Times