Strong buying in the five of the seven sectors on Monday helped Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) gain for the second consecutive day and its key index inched near 9,000 levels.
Buying was seen stronger within banking, real estate, industrials and insurance counters as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 1.33% to 8,934.39 points.
The market is expecting MSCI to review the weightage assigned to scrips in view of the eased foreign ownership limits in certain underlying stocks.
Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank sponsored exchange traded funds QATR and QETF reported 1.01% and 1.03% gains respectively.
The Gulf institutions turned bullish and there was weakened net selling by local retail investors in the market, which is up 4.82% year-to-date.
Buying was seen more pronounced within large cap segments in the bourse, whose capitalisation gained 1.9% to QR494.51bn.
Trade turnover gained amidst lower volumes in the market, where banking sector alone accounted for more than 49% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 1.33% to 15,741.4 points, All Share Index by 1.72% to 2,619.51 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.94% to 2,217.96 points.
The banks and financial services index soared 2.3%, realty (2%), industrials (1.86%), insurance (1.4%) and consumer goods (0.99%); while telecom and transport declined 0.83% and 0.63% respectively.
More than 60% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Ahlibank, Commercial Bank, Ezdan, Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Alijarah Holding and Dlala; whereas Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Doha Bank, Al Khaleej Takaful and United Development Company were among the losers.
The Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR4.37mn compared with net sellers of QR2.96mn on Sunday.
Local individual investors’ net profit booking declined perceptibly to QR9.02mn against QR11.86mn on May 13.
The Gulf individuals’ net selling also weakened marginally to QR0.15mn compared to QR2mn the previous day.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR7.02mn against net buyers of QR2.18mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari individuals were also net sellers to the tune of QR0.28mn compared with net buyers of QR0.79mn on May 13.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying eased marginally to QR12.11mn against QR13.82mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 25% to 7.48mn shares, while value grew 15% to QR213.28mn and transactions by 22% to 3,714.
The telecom sector reported 86% plunge in trade volume to 0.39mn equities, 68% in value to QR10.62mn and 5% in deals to 382.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 35% to 1.18mn stocks, value by 24% to QR12.91mn and transactions by 21% to 482.
The transport sector saw 29% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.12mn shares, 29% in value to QR1.92mn and 11% in deals to 105.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume was down 4% to 0.24mn equities and value by 12% to QR17.19mn, while transactions were up 2% to 269.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.2mn stocks and value also more than doubled to QR6.5mn on 37% jump in deals to 111.
There was 19% expansion in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 1.68mn shares, 75% in value to QR61.85mn and 79% in transactions to 1,115.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume grew 2% to 3.68mn equities, value by 37% to QR104.26mn and deals by 34% to 1,250.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills but as many as 19,000 sovereign bonds valued at QR187.73mn traded across two transactions.
