13/10/2017 22:06 AST
Foreign institutions’ sustained strong buying on Thursday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange for the fifth consecutive day, albeit at lower levels.
The insurance, banking and telecom counters witnessed stronger demand as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 0.1% to 8,342.09 points.
Islamic equities, however, saw declines in the bourse, whose year-to-date losses were at 20.07%.
A marginally higher net buying from Gulf funds also helped the market, whose capitalisation grew 0.22% to QR453.82bn.
The strong decline in the first 15 minutes took the index below 8,280 points after which there was some buying support for the next 15 minutes only to see largely a selling mode for the next 60 minutes. Strong buying support ensued for the remainder of the session helping the index settle eight points higher.
Trade turnover expanded amidst lower volumes in the bourse, where the banking and real estate sectors together accounted for more than 64% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index was up 0.1% to 13,989.19 points and the All Share Index by 0.18% to 2,340.74 points, while the Al Rayan Islamic Index shrank 0.45% to 3,340.62 points.
The insurance index gained 1.16%, followed by banks and financial services (0.45%) and telecom (0.31%); while transport declined 0.34%, followed by industrials (0.29%), realty (0.17%) and consumer goods (0.03%).
Major movers included QNB, Doha Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, al khaliji, Gulf International Services, Al Khaleej Takaful, Qatar General and Reinsurance and Salam International Investment; whereas Commercial Bank, Qatari Investors Group, Qatar National Cement, Aamal Company, Vodafone Qatar, United Development Company, Barwa, Gulf Warehousing and Nakilat were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened impressively to QR31.26mn compared to QR15.02mn on Wednesday.
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds’ net buying increased to QR2.72mn against QR2.17mn the previous day.
GCC retail investors’ net buying also strengthened marginally to QR0.66mn compared to QR0.16mn on October 11.
However, domestic institutions’ net profit-booking shot up considerably to QR17.5mn against QR4.49mn on Wednesday.
Local retail investors’ net selling rose perceptibly to QR16.34mn compared to QR14.13mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.81mn against net buyers of QR1.26mn on October 11.
Total trade volume fell 8% to 7.58mn shares, while value rose 41% to QR207.32mn despite 9% lower deals to 2,623.
There was a 51% plunge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.42mn equities, 34% in value to QR6.63mn and 4% in transactions to 196.
The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 50% to 1.14mn stocks, value by 28% to QR25.47mn and deals by 22% to 454.
The real estate sector reported a 27% shrinkage in trade volume to 1.71mn shares, 13% in value to QR24.06mn and 49% in transactions to 399.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.42mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR20.07mn but on a 9% fall in deals to 86.
The market witnessed a 72% surge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.43mn stocks to more than double value to QR9.84mn and transactions to 284.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume soared 61% to 0.29mn shares and value by 2% to QR10.76mn, while deals were down 4% to 159.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 50% expansion in trade volume to 3.17mn equities to more than double value to QR110.49mn on an 11% jump in transactions to 1,045.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
Gulf Times
Please wait...
