26/03/2018 08:00 AST
An across-the-board selling — particularly in realty, industrials and transport — led the Qatar Stock Exchange to open the week weak and its key index settled below 8,800 levels.
The increased profit booking pressure from foreign funds was mainly instrumental in dragging the 20-stock Qatar Index for the third straight session by 0.83% to 8,752.66 points.
The Doha Bank and Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded funds QETF and QATR saw 0.52% and 0.6% declines respectively.
The weakened buying interests of domestic and Gulf institutions as well as non-Qatari individuals also played their part in the market, which is, however, up 2.69% year-to-date.
Microcap equities witnessed severe selling on the bourse, whose capitalisation declined 0.68% to QR482.16bn.
The market witnessed a total of 0.13mn QATR valued at QR3.04mn across 71 transactions and a total of 0.01mn QETF valued at QR0.57mn across 11 deals.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the market, where banking, real estate and industrials sectors together accounted for about 80% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index shed 0.83% to 15,374.61 points, All Share Index by 0.91% to 2,578.83 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 1.4% to 2,248.85 points.
The realty index tanked 1.81%, insurance (1.7%), transport (1.34%), consumer goods (0.83%), banks and financial services (0.78%), telecom (0.45%) and industrials (0.32%).About 70% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar First Bank, QIIB, Medicare Group, Al Khaleej Takaful, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Barwa, Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar and Milaha.
Nevertheless, Commercial Bank, Ahli Bank, Woqod, Gulf International Services, Mazaya Qatar and Islamic Holding Group were among the gainers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking increased influentially to QR8.89mn against QR6.36mn last Thursday.
Domestic funds’ net buying weakened substantially to QR0.99mn compared to QR5.31mn the previous trading day.
The Gulf institutions’ net buying declined marginally to QR12.89mn against QR13.41mn on March 22.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net buying weakened perceptibly to QR0.04mn compared to QR0.37mn last Thursday.
However, local retail investors’ net selling fell considerably to QR1.13mn against QR4.96mn the previous trading day.
The Gulf individuals’ net profit booking also declined to QR3.92mn compared to QR7.79mn on March 22.
Total trade volume fell 27% to 11.46mn shares, value by 26% to QR195.04mn and transactions by 23% to 3,224.
The market witnessed 78% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.2mn equities, 75% in value to QR3.99mn and 62% deals to 150.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 55% to 0.23mn stocks, value by 57% to QR8.62mn and transactions by 24% to 149.
The banks and financial services sector saw 47% shrinkage in trade volume to 4.49mn shares, 42% in value to QR68.51mn and 26% in deals to 1,081.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 21% to 0.57mn equities, while value gained 48% to QR27.93mn despite 3% lower transactions to 320.
There was 7% fall in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.35mn stocks, 24% in value to QR13.97mn and 31% in deals to 218.
However, the real estate sector’s trade volume shot up 44% to 2.54mn shares and value by 12% to QR27.7mn, whereas transactions were down 4% to 732.
The industrials sector reported 6% expansion in trade volume to 2.09mn equities but on 5% decline in value to QR44.3mn and 20% in deals to 574.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
Gulf Times
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