The Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday crossed 9,100 levels mainly on the back of strong buying interests in the realty, transport and insurance equities.
Foreign funds’ bullish outlook and weakened net selling by their Gulf counterparts helped the 20-stock Qatar Index settle 0.3% higher at 9,106.77 points.
Local retail investors’ weakened net selling also helped the market, which is up 6.84% year-to-date.
Buying was more perceptible within large and microcap stocks on the bourse, whose capitalisation gained 0.76% to QR488.51bn.
Islamic stocks were, however, seen declining vis-à-vis gains in the other indices in the market, which saw substantially weakened net buying from domestic funds.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the market, where industrials, banking and real estate sectors together accounted for about 88% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 0.3% to 15,375.53 points and All Share Index by 0.7% to 2,547.95 points, while Al Rayan Islamic Index was down 0.01% to 3,693.84 points.
The realty index soared 2.66%, transport (1.45%), insurance (0.73%), industrials (0.33%), banks and financial services (0.28%) and telecom (0.22%), whereas consumer goods fell 0.01%.
About 47% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Ezdan, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Al Khaleej Takaful, Masraf Al Rayan, Alijarah Holding and Ooredoo; even as Qatari Investors Group, QIIB, Vodafone Qatar, Aamal Company and Medicare Group were among the losers.
Non-Qatari funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR14.48mn compared with net sellers of QR10.69mn on Sunday.
The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking weakened influentially to QR5.45mn against QR20.3mn on February 18.
Local individuals’ net selling declined perceptibly to QR16.09mn compared to QR20.04mn the previous day.
However, non-Qatari individuals turned net sellers to the extent of QR1.66mn against net buyers of QR7.47mn on Sunday.
Domestic institutions’ net buying plunged substantially to QR9.94mn compared to QR39.35mn on Sunday.
The Gulf individual investors’ net selling grew marginally to QR1.2mn against QR0.37mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 25% to 8.74mn shares, value by 18% to QR200.34mn and transactions by 70% to 3,838.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 3.52mn equities and value almost tripled to QR72.82mn on almost doubled deals to 1,256.
The insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.13mn stocks and value doubled to QR5.39mn on more than doubled transactions to 173.
The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 31% to 0.46mn shares and value more than doubled to QR13.29mn on 77% increase in deals to 305.
The real estate sector reported 9% expansion in trade volume to 1.19mn equities, 25% in value to QR19.08n and 53% in transactions to 567.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 44% to 0.1mn stocks and value by 66% to QR1.9mn, whereas deals grew 4% to 112.
The banks and financial services sector saw 22% plunge in trade volume to 2.96mn shares and 20% in value to QR68.56mn but on 77% surge in transactions to 1,195.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 19% to 0.38mn equities, value by 31% to QR19.29mn and deals by 3% to 230.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
