The banking and industrials counters witnessed higher than average selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.43% to 9,736.35 points.
The Gulf institutions continued to be net profit takers but with marginally lesser intensity, in the main market, whose year-to-date losses widened to 8.84%.
More than 65% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main bourse, whose capitalisation melted QR3.45bn or 0.6% to QR569.8bn with small cap segments losing the most.
The local retail investors’ weakened net buying had its influence in the main market, which touched an intraday high of 9,797 points.
The domestic institutions’ lower net buying also had its say in the main bourse, which saw as many as 0.01mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.02mn trade across four deals.
The Arab individuals’ weakened net buying was visible in the main market, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.
The Islamic index was seen declining slower than the other indices in the main bourse, which witnessed no trading of treasury bills.
The Total Return Index lost 0.43%, the All Islamic Index by 0.33% and the All Share Index by 0.56% in the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the increase.
The banks and financial services sector index shed 0.87%, industrials (0.44%), consumer goods and services (0.25%), telecom (0.13%) and insurance (0.05%); while transport and real estate gained 0.14% and 0.04% respectively.
Major shakers in the main market include Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, QNB, Al Khaleej Takaful, Qatari German Medical Devices, Dlala, Masraf Al Rayan, Baladna and Qatari Investors Group.
Nevertheless, QLM, Lesha Bank, Widam Food, Mazaya Qatar, Nakilat, Qatar Oman Investment and Aamal Company were among the gainers in the main bourse. In the venture market, Mahhar Holding saw its shares appreciate in value.
The local individual investors’ net buying declined noticeably to QR1.77mn compared to QR3.01mn on December 10.
The domestic institutions’ net buying weakened marginally to QR11.26mn against QR12.08mn the previous day.
The Arab individual investors’ net buying shrank markedly to QR0.58mn compared to QR2.61mn on Sunday.
The foreign individual investors’ net buying eased marginally to QR5.53mn against QR6mn on December 10.
However, the Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.02mn compared with net sellers QR0.08mn the previous day.
The foreign institutions’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR3.72mn against QR7.71mn on Sunday.
The Gulf institutions’ net selling decreased marginally to QR15.45mn compared to QR15.92mn on December 10.
The Arab institutions had no major net exposure for the fourth straight session.
Trade volumes in the main market soared 27% to 105.81mn shares, value by 46% to QR323.86mn and deals by 59% to 13,024.
The venture market saw a 30% plunge in trade volumes to 0.23mn equities, 36% in value to QR0.3mn and 28% in transactions to 31.
