By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter
The Qatar Exchange witnessed buying interests yesterday ahead of Eid holidays, especially in the banking, consumer goods and industrials stocks.
The bourse will remain closed from today until Monday for Eid al-Fitr holidays and will resume trading on Tuesday, August 13.
Domestic institutions were seen exerting bullish momentum as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) settled 0.45% higher at 9,847.62 points on higher trading volumes.
Major gainers included QNB, Masraf Al Rayan, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services and United Development Company; even as Milaha, Nakilat and Barwa bucked the trend.
The market is up 17.81% year-to-date.
The 20-stock Total Return Index also gained 0.45% to 14,069.99 points, the All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.45% to 2,479.91 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.41% to 2,832.72 points.
All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Under the All Share Index category, banks and financial services stocks returned 0.93% gains, followed by consumer goods (0.46%) and industrials (0.37%), even as the transport index fell 0.57%, followed by telecom (0.31%), insurance (0.18%) and real estate (0.02%).
Market capitalisation rose to QR539.34bn. Large and small cap stocks largely witnessed brisk buying than the mid and micro caps.
Of the 42 stocks, 18 advanced; while 14 declined, four were unchanged and six were not traded.
Domestic turned out to be net buyers to the tune of 2.9% or QR7.47mn, whereas their foreign counterparts continued to be bearish, but with lesser vigour, as their net selling sunk to 0.75% or QR1.93mn.
On the retail side, Qatari individuals turned profit-takers as they were net sellers to the extent of 3.09% or QR7.96mn, while non-Qatari investors continued to be bullish, but with lesser intensity, as their net buying fell to 0.95% or QR2.45mn.
A total of 5.77mn stocks valued at QR257.57mn changed hands across 2,986 transactions.
The banking sector witnessed a total of 3.15mn shares with a value of QR111.28mn change hands across 1,312 deals.
A total of 0.55mn industrials stocks worth QR12.34mn were traded across 204 transactions.
The consumer goods sector saw a total of 0.54mn shares valued at QR46.61mn change hands across 435 deals.
A total of 0.32mn telecom stocks worth QR12.07mn traded across 182 transactions and in the case of transport, a total of 0.31mn equities worth QR15.35mn change hands across 280 deals.
The insurance segment saw a total of 0.12mn shares worth QR7.48mn traded across 58 transactions.
In the debt market, there was no trading of bonds. However, the market witnessed a total of 30,000 treasury bills (TA66 and TA67) with a combined value of QR298.33mn trade in six transactions.
