QE extends losses to 2nd day amid profit-booking

06/10/2010 00:00 AST

Mild profit-booking, especially in industrial stocks weighed on Qatar’s bourse yesterday. The 20-stock benchmark settled 0.08% lower at 7,706.81 points on weak buying interest from foreign institutions.

Micro and large cap equities largely bore the brunt in the market, which is however up 10.79% year-to-date.

Industries Qatar, QNB and Qatar Telecom were among the prime losers.

The industrial index lost 0.32%, followed by banks and financial institutions (0.06%) and services (0.01%), while insurance was unchanged.

Of the 42 stocks, 12 gained, while 21 declined, six were unchanged and three not traded. Market capitalisation fell 0.15% or QR62mn to QR404.19bn with micro and large cap equities losing 0.35% and 0.14% respectively.

Total trading volume fell 16% to 4.99mn and value by 9% to QR196.73mn whereas transactions rose 5% to 3,358.

The insurance sector’s trading volume plummeted 67% to 0.03mn shares, value by 75% to QR1.69mn and deals by 51% to 28.

Banks and financial institutions saw its trading volume plunge 35% to 1.38mn equities but value gained 3% to QR91.74mn and transactions by 7% to 1,187.

The industrial sector’s trading volume shrank 18% to 0.40mn shares, value by 26% to QR16.05mn and deals by 15% to 343.

The services sector’s trading volume was down 2% to 3.18mn stocks and value by 13% to QR87.25mn whereas transactions gained 9% to 1,800.

Foreign institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser intensity as their net buying sunk to 0.82% from 7.55% in the previous day.

A much lower 28.11% were into buying compared with 39.28% on Monday and a lower 27.29% into selling against 31.73%.

Domestic institutions continued to be bearish but with lesser vigour as their net selling fell to 1.17% from 4.55% in the previous day.

A higher 17.97% of them bought stocks compared with 13.65% on Monday and a marginally higher 191.4% sold against 18.20%.

Local retail investors’ profit-booking became weak as their net selling fell to 0.45% from 3.95% in the previous day.

A higher 39.37% of them were into buying against 35.10% on Monday and a marginally higher 39.82% into selling compared with 39.05%.

Non-Qatari retail investors continued to be bullish but with lesser intensity as their net buying fell to 0.80% from 0.94% in the previous day.

A higher 14.55% of them bought stocks against 11.96% on Monday and a higher 13.75% sold compared with 11.02%.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Mawashi (853,740 shares); Barwa (704,683); Commercialbank (401.817); Nakilat (365,267) and Masraf Al Rayan (347,768).

Gulf Times