By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
Local institutions’ profit-booking yesterday steered Qatar’s bourse back into a negative terrain as the key index fell 1.41%.
Led by QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank and Commercialbank (Cb), the 20-stock benchmark settled 99 points lower at 6,932.62 points despite robust buying support from foreign retail investors. The market is up 0.53% year-to-date.
On a sector-wise performance, the index of insurance pared 2.29%, followed by services (2.17%), banks and financial institutions (1.26%) and industry (0.98%).
Of the 44 stocks, only seven gained, while 31 fell and three were unchanged. Three others were not traded.
Market capitalisation stood lower at 321.84bn with small, micro and large cap equities falling 2.30%, 1.64% and 1.34% respectively.
A total of 7.71mn shares worth QR238.26mn changed hands across 4,919 transactions. Volumes, value and deals were down 38%, 37% and 29% respectively from the previous day.
Within the lenders segment, a total of 2.98mn stocks with a value of QR101.89mn traded across 1,734 deals. Services saw 3.89mn equities worth QR87.39mn change hands across 2,488 transactions.
As many as 0.70mn industrial stocks worth QR43.99mn traded across 609 deals, while 0.14mn insurance stocks valued at QR4.99mn changed hands across 88 transactions.
Other notable losers included Industries Qatar, Nakilat, Qatar Shipping, Qatar Real Estate Investment and Mawashi, but Al Meera Consumer Goods Company, Medicare Group and Ezdan Real Estate bucked the trend.
Opening strong at 7,056.78 (which was also the day’s high) against the previous day’s close of 7,032.03 points, the market then reversed its course to hit a low of 6,931.75 points within the first 60 minutes. The index gained marginally for the rest of the session, but settled 99 points lower.
Local institutions turned profit-takers as they were net sellers (in terms of value) to the tune of 1.22% compared with net buyers of 8.03% on Monday.
A lower 25.64% of them were into buying against 26.52% in the previous day, while a higher 26.86% were into selling compared with 18.49%.
Foreign institutions continued to be profit-takers but with lesser intensity as their net selling fell to 6.14% from 8.29% on Monday.
A higher 17.19% of them bought equities compared with 10.84% in the previous trading day and a higher 23.33% sold against 19.13%.
Qatari retail investors’ bullish grip strengthened as their net buying surged to 2.14% from 0.30% on Monday.
A lower 37.74% of them purchased stocks compared with 47.05% in the previous day and a lower 35.60% offloaded against 46.75%.
Non-Qatari retail investors however turned bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 5.22% compared with net sellers of 0.04% on Monday.
A higher 19.43% of them picked up equities against 15.59% in the previous day, while a lower 14.21% offloaded compared with 15.63%.
Actively traded stocks were Masraf Al Rayan (1.48mn shares), Nakilat (1.12mn), Mawashi (844,286), Vodafone Qatar (712,146) and Cb (549,304).
In a communiqué, the QE said Ezdan stocks will not trade today in view of the company’s extra-ordinary general assembly meeting