By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter
The Qatar Exchange opened the week weak yesterday, mainly due to net selling pressure from foreign institutions.
Realty, banking and telecom counters witnessed more profit-booking as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) settled 0.41% lower at 9,654.55 points.
QNB, Commercial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatari Investors Group, United Development Company (UDC), Barwa, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat were among influential losers, while Doha Bank and Gulf International Services outperformed key indices.
UDC, Doha Bank and Qatar Insurance were among the most active by volume and value in the market, which is up 15.50% year-to-date (YTD).
The 20-stock Total Return Index also fell 0.41% to 13,794.13 points, the All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.43% to 2,435.39 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.44% to 2,854.30 points.
All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Under the All Share Index category, the real estate index tanked 1.32%, followed by banks and financial services (0.63%), telecom (0.48%), transport (0.31%), consumer goods (0.25%) and industrials and insurance (0.03% each).
Market capitalisation stood at QR529.99bn. Of the 42 stocks, only seven advanced, while 28 declined, four were unchanged and three were not traded.
Foreign institutions were net sellers to the tune of 9.73% as a higher 18.32% of them were into offloading compared to 8.59% who bought equities. However, domestic institutions were net buyers to the extent of 13.92% as 28.63% of them were into buying against 14.71% who sold.
Qatari individual investors were marginally net sellers to the tune of 0.10% as a higher 50.61% of them sold compared to 50.51% of whom bought stocks. Non-Qatari individual investors were net buyers to the extent of 1.91% as a higher 12.27% of them bought equities against 10.36% who sold.
A total of 6.30mn stocks valued QR271.10mn changed hands across 2,699 transactions.
The realty sector saw a total of 2.92mn shares with a value of QR70.70mn trade across 674 deals, while the banks and financial services sector witnessed 1.86mn equities worth QR97.49mn change hands across 939 transactions.
A total of 0.45mn industrials stocks valued at QR42.81mn were traded in 378 deals and a total of 0.44mn insurance equities worth QR25.60mn changed hands across 227 transactions.
Consumer goods sector witnessed 0.29mn shares worth QR20.96mn change hands across 217 deals.
Telecom and transport sectors reported stock trading volume of 0.18mn and 0.15mn, value of QR8.31mn and 5.22mn and 139 and 125 transactions respectively.
Among the most actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were UDC; Barwa, Doha Bank, Qatar Insurance and Rayan.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and bonds.
