01/05/2015 11:20 AST
The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday snapped a three-day bullish spell to lose 84 points and settled below the 12,200 mark; dragged by realty, industrials and banking stocks.
Lower net buying interests of domestic institutions and higher net profit booking intensity of their foreign counterparts led the 20-stock Qatar Index to knock off 0.68% to 12,164.48 as trade volumes were also on the decline.
Some of the large-cap stocks witnessed the maximum selling pressure in the bourse, which is down about 1% year-to-date.
However, selling pressure from local retail investors and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions were seen weakening and non-Qatari individual investors turned bullish in the market, where trading was skewed towards telecom, realty and banking stocks, which together accounted for about 70% of the overall volume.
Market capitalisation shrank 0.51%, or more than QR3bn, to QR653.76bn.
The Total Return Index fell 0.68% to 19,904.24 points, the All Share Index by 0.55% to 3,250.66 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.62% to 4,617.29 points.
Real estate stocks declined 0.84%, followed by banks and financial services (0.82%) and industrials (0.82%); even as telecom gained 1.2%, followed by transport (0.42%), insurance (0.32%) and consumer goods (0.15%).
More than 63% of the stocks ended in the red with major shakers being QNB, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Vodafone Qatar and Widam Food; whereas Ooredoo, Gulf International Services, Milaha and Al Meera bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking surged to QR31.27mn against QR9.81mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net buying considerably weakened to QR1.41mn compared to QR37mn on Wednesday.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR12.01mn against net sellers of QR29.15mn on April 29.
Non-Qatari individual investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR3.05mn compared with net sellers of QR10.03mn the previous day.
The GCC institutions’ net buying rose to QR16.78mn compared to QR15.63mn on Wednesday.
The GCC individual investors’ net selling fell to QR2.03mn against QR3.56mn on April 29.
Total trade volume fell 42% to 8.52mn shares, value by 39% to QR441.66mn and transactions by 21% to 5,545.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 70% to 1.94mn equities, value by 74% to QR64.09mn and deals by 58% to 913.
There was a 70% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.25mn stocks, 59% in value to QR16.27mn and 31% in transactions to 219.
The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 38% to 0.08mn shares and value by 32% to QR4.08mn but deals rose 36% to 87.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 33% shrinkage in trade volume to 1.9mn equities, 27% in value to QR137.71mn and 14% in transactions to 1,572.
The industrials sector’s trade volume declined 29% to 1.42mn stocks, value by 20% to QR137.73mn and deals by 18% to 1,237.
However, the market witnessed a 28% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 2.09mn shares, 31% in value to QR46.15mn and 43% in transactions to 917.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume was up 6% to 0.84mn equities but value fell 4% to QR35.62mn. Deals expanded 19% to 600.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
Gulf Times
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