External factors drag QSE sentiments as index falls 46 points

18/11/2025 06:13 AST

Weak oil and the US Fed rate uncertainty continued to have influence on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) with its key index losing as much as 46 points.

The foreign funds were seen increasingly net profit takers as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.43% to 10,800.54 points, although it touched an intraday high of 10,867 points.

The industrials, insurance, banks and real estate counters witnessed higher than average selling pressure in the main market, whose year-to-date gains truncated to 2.17%.

About 59% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main bourse, whose capitalisation melted QR3.81bn or 0.59% to QR646.15bn, mainly on midcap segments.

The foreign retail investors turned bearish in the main market, which saw as many as 0.04mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by AlRayan Bank and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.11mn trade across 17 deals.

Weakened net buying of domestic funds Gulf retail investors had its influence on the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the rise.

The Islamic index was seen declining slower than the other indices of the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills.

However, the local individuals were increasingly net buyers in the main bourse, which saw a total of 0.17mn sovereign bonds valued at QR1.74bn trade across one deal.

The Total Return Index shed 0.43%, the All Share Index by 0.49% and the All Islamic Index by 0.29% in the main market.

The industrials sector index shrank 0.94%, insurance (0.79%), banks and financial services (0.64%) and realty (0.63%); while telecom gained 0.84%, transport (0.32%) and consumer goods and services (0.18%).

As many as 31 stocks declined, while 18 gained and four were unchanged.

Major shakers in the main market include Widam Food, Ezdan, Qatar Insurance, Qatar Electricity and Water, Qatar Oman Investment, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Qatar National Cement and Gulf Warehousing. Techno Q saw its shares depreciate in value.

Nevertheless, Vodafone Qatar, Doha Bank, Medicare Group, Qamco, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance and Nakilat were among the gainers in the main bourse.

The foreign institutions' net profit booking increased significantly to QR54.44mn compared to QR38.31mn on Sunday.

The foreign retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR2.75mn against net buyers of QR1.36mn the previous day.

The domestic institutions' net buying declined noticeably to QR7.76mn compared to QR12.64mn on November 16.

The Gulf individual investors' net buying weakened markedly to QR2.29mn against QR4.39mn on Sunday.

However, the local retail investors' net buying expanded substantially to QR36.66mn compared to QR20.98mn the previous day.

The Gulf institutions were net buyers to the extent of QR7.62mn against net sellers of QR4.25mn on November 16.

The Arab individual investors' net buying strengthened marginally to QR2.86mn compared to QR2.38mn on Sunday.

The Arab funds had no major net exposure against net buyers to the tune of QR0.83mn the previous day.

The main market saw 44% jump in trade volumes to 119.5mn shares and 71% in value to QR373.03mn on more than doubled deals to 33,531.

In the venture market, a total of 0.03mn equities valued at QR0.07mn changed hands across 13 transactions.

Gulf Times