The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) on Tuesday remained almost flat, after a 20-day bull-run, despite selling pressure in insurance, telecom, realty and consumer goods counters.

Gulf Times


The foreign institutions were seen net profit takers as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled at 10,006.07 points, although it recovered from an intraday low of 9,986 points.

The local retail investors were increasingly net sellers in the main market, whose year-to-date losses were at 7.61%.

The Gulf individuals were increasingly bearish in the main bourse, whose capitalisation shrank QR0.25bn or 0.04% to QR577.34bn on the back of microcap segments.

The foreign funds continued to be net sellers but with lesser intensity in the main market, which saw 0.18mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.41mn trade across 18 deals.

As much as 60% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main bourse, which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.

The Islamic index was seen declining faster than the other indices in the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the decrease.

The Total Return Index was unchanged, while the All Share Index was down 0.05% and the All Islamic Index by 0.26% in the main market.

The insurance sector index tanked 1.58%, telecom (1.14%), realty (0.28%) and consumer goods and services (0.23%); while banks and financial services gained 0.15%, transport (0.1%) and industrials (0.04%).

Major losers in the main market included Doha Insurance, Beema, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Insurance, Qatari German Medical Devices, Doha Bank, Qamco and Ooredoo.

Nevertheless, Mekdam Holding, Al Meera, Gulf International Services, QLM and Al Khaleej Takaful were among the gainers in the main bourse. In the venture market, Al Mahhar Holding and Techno Q saw their shares appreciate in value.

The foreign institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR16.78mn compared with net buyers of QR21.08mn on July 1.

The Qatari retail investors’ net selling increased substantially to QR27.52mn against QR17.88mn the previous day.

The Gulf individual investors’ net profit booking grew marginally to QR0.45mn compared to QR0.22mn on Monday.

However, the domestic institutions’ net buying increased significantly to QR53.33mn against QR29.58mn on July 1.

The Arab individuals were net buyers to the extent of QR1.56mn compared with net sellers of QR7.15mn the previous day.

The foreign retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.71mn against net profit takers of QR4.1mn on Monday.

The Gulf institutions’ net selling weakened drastically to QR10.83mn compared to QR20.99mn on July 1.

The Arab institutions’ net profit booking eased perceptibly to QR0.01mn against QR0.33mn the previous day.

Trade volumes in the main market declined 7% to 124.4mn shares, value by 2% to QR397.51mn and transactions by 3% to 15,918.

The venture market saw a 172-fold jump in trade volume to 10.3mn equities and 71-fold in value to QR15.53mn on almost quadrupled deals to 79.
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