31/01/2011 00:00 AST
Political unrest in Egypt triggered a sell-off by foreign institutions on Qatar’s bourse, which yesterday reported its sharpest decline in eight months, knocking off QR13bn capitalisation in a single day.
Blue-chip equities took a severe beating as the 20-stock benchmark lost 2.95% or 264 points to 8,709.77 points. The market is however up 0.32% year-to-date.
“The situation in Egypt is becoming murkier with increased political uncertainty and risk for the entire Middle East region, which prompted foreign institutions to egress at the earliest,” an analyst working with a brokerage firm told Gulf Times.
Terming the current fall in the market, which went below the 8,400 mark intra-day, as a “knee-jerk” reaction, he said it is expected that the crisis will be ‘contained at the source itself’ but cautioned that a prolonged upheaval could affect Qatari stocks.
Among the prime losers were Industries Qatar (IQ), Nakilat, Doha Bank, Commercialbank (Cb), Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, al khaliji, National Leasing and Barwa.
Market capitalisation plunged by 2.88% or about QR13bn to QR435.07bn with mid, large and small caps equities plummeting 3.34%, 2.67% and 1.84% respectively.
Industrial stocks lost the maximum of 5.66%, followed by insurance (3.14%), services (2.97%) and banks and financial institution (2.21%).
Of the 43 stocks, only three gained, while 36 declined and four were not traded.
Foreign institutions were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling surged to 32.30% from 11.68% in the previous trading day.
A marginally lower 19.34% of them were into buying against 19.64% last Thursday, while a much higher 51.64% were into selling compared to 31.32%.
On the other hand, domestic institutions’ bullish grip strengthened as their net buying rose to 13.21% from 5.64% in the previous day.
A marginally higher 24.18% of them bought equities against 23.62% last Thursday, while a lower 10.97% of them sold compared to 17.98%.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ bullish grip eased as their net buying sunk to 2.88% from 3.59% in the previous day.
A marginally lower 14.22% of them were into buying against 14.62% last Thursday, while a marginally higher 11.34% into offloading compared to 11.03%.
Qatari individual investors were also increasingly bullish as their net buying surged to 16.21% from 2.45% in the previous day.
A marginally higher 42.26% of them purchased equities against 42.12% last Thursday, while a lower 26.05% sold compared to 39.67%.
Total trading volume more than doubled to 25.76mn equities, value more than tripled to QR1.02bn on a 97% jump in transactions to 9,404.
Banks and financial institution’s trading volume more than tripled to 11.56mn equities, value also more than tripled to QR478.07mn as deals more than doubled to 3,607.
The industrial sector witnessed more than a tripling of trading volume to 2.76mn shares, value more than quadrupled to QR254.12mn on more than doubled transactions to 1,829.
The services sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 11.25mn, value also more than doubled to QR274.67mn and deals rose 87% to 3,840.
The insurance sector’s trading volume was up 46% to 0.19mn shares, value more than doubled to QR10.45mn on 52% jump in transactions to 128.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Rayan (5.69mn shares), Nakilat (3.29mn), Barwa (2.39mn), Cb (2.15mn), Vodafone Qatar (1.86mn), IQ (1.70mn), Salam International Investments (1.33mn), Doha Bank (1.28mn) and al khaliji (1.18mn).
Gulf Times
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