The Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed profit booking, especially at the counters of insurance and banks, leading the main index to slide 68 points and capitalisation to erode about QR4bn.
The domestic institutions continued to be net sellers but with lesser intensity as the 20-stock Qatar Index fell 0.62% to 10,845.12 points, although it touched an intraday high of 10,933 points.
The Gulf institutions’ substantially weakened net buying had its influence on the market, whose year-to-date gains stood at 1.54%.
The Gulf retail investors were seen net profit takers in the main bourse, whose capitalisation saw QR3.73bn or a 0.6% decrease to QR615.97bn, mainly led by small and microcap segments.
About 73% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main market, which saw a total of 0.06mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.19mn changed hands across 10 deals.
The Arab individuals continued to be net buyers but with lesser vigour in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.
The Islamic index declined slower than the other indices in the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills.
The Total Return Index shed 0.62%, the All Share Index by 0.57% and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.34% in the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the decline.
The insurance sector index fell 1.21%, industrials (0.85%), real estate (0.79%), telecom (0.67%), banks and financial services (0.58%) and transport (0.09%); while consumer goods and services gained 0.2%.
Major shakers in the main market included QLM, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Commercial Bank, Dlala, Estithmar Holding, Qatari German Medical Devices, Industries Qatar, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Ooredoo and Nakilat.
In the venture market, Al Faleh Educational Holding saw its shares depreciate in value.
Nevertheless, Lesha Bank, Al Meera, Gulf International Services, Milaha and Qatar National Cement were among the gainers in the main market.
The Gulf retail investors were net sellers to the tune of QR0.35mn compared with net buyers of QR0.36mn on January 3.
The Gulf institutions’ net buying declined substantially to QR8.3mn against QR40.62mn the previous day.
The Arab individuals’ net buying shrank noticeably to QR1.8mn compared to QR10.82mn on Tuesday.
The foreign individuals’ net buying weakened perceptibly to QR2.53mn against QR4.94mn on January 3.
However, the foreign institutions’ net buying expanded markedly to QR16.37mn compared to QR12.35mn the previous day.
The local retail investors’ net buying strengthened notably to QR4.33mn against QR1.64mn on Tuesday.
The Arab institutions were net buyers to the extent of QR0.11mn compared with no major net exposure on January 3.
The domestic funds’ net profit booking tanked considerably to QR33.11mn against QR70.74mn the previous day.
The main market saw a 5% contraction in trade volume to 109.52mn shares, 12% in value to QR351.54n and 18% in deals to 12,491.
In the junior bourse, as many as 1,100 equities valued at QR1,333 changed hands across two transactions.
The domestic institutions continued to be net sellers but with lesser intensity as the 20-stock Qatar Index fell 0.62% to 10,845.12 points, although it touched an intraday high of 10,933 points.
