Qatar shares fall on local sell pressure

The selling pressure from domestic institutions yesterday put the Qatar Exchange on a negative trajectory as its key index fell 0.85%.

Led by banking and services sectors, the 20-stock benchmark settled 72 points lower at 8,424.79 points.

The market is down 2.96% year-to-date.

Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercialbank, Doha Bank, QNB, Nakilat, Qatar Navigation and Barwa were among the prime losers.

Maximum selling was seen in services, whose index tanked 0.95%, followed by banks (0.93%), insurance (0.74%) and industry (0.36%).

Of the 42 stocks, only four advanced, while 37 declined and one was unchanged. Another one was not traded.

Domestic institutions continued to be bullish but with much lesser intensity as their net buying sunk to 9.44% from 21.47% the previous day.

A marginally lower 29.66% of them bought equities against 30.22% on Monday while a much higher 20.22% of them sold compared to 8.75%.

Foreign institutions’ profit-booking considerably weakened as their net selling declined to 9.80% from 22.46% the previous day.

A marginally higher 29.73% of them were into buying compared to 28.72% on Monday whereas a much lower 39.53% were into selling against 51.18%.

Qatari individual investors continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as their net buying fell to 0.04% from 2.14% the previous day.

A marginally lower 28.69% of them purchased equities against 28.89% on Monday but a higher 28.65% sold compared to 26.75%.

Non-Qatari retail investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 0.32% against net sellers of 1.16% the previous day.

A marginally lower 11.92% of them were into buying compared to 12.16% on Monday and a lower 11.60% were into offloading against 13.32%.

Total trading volume rose 37% to 5.51mn equities, value by 12% to QR213.84mn and deals by 36% to 3,442.

The services sector’s trading volume shot up 54% to 2.37mn shares, value by 49% to QR67mn and transactions by 47% to 1,414.

The insurance sector’s trading volume surged 50% to 0.03mn shares, value by 29% to QR1.86mn and deals more than doubled to 43.

The banks’ trading volume zoomed 29% to 2.46mn equities, value by 4% to QR86.05mn and deals by 5% to 1,291.

The industrial sector witnessed a 16% jump in trading volume to 0.66mn shares whereas value fell 4% to QR58.93mn. Transactions more than doubled to 694.