QSE edges up; insurance, realty and transport counters see excess demand

Ahead of the US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's testimony before Congress, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) on Tuesday witnessed violent gyrations for most part of the trading session to finally wind up nine points higher.

A higher than average demand in the insurance, real estate and transport sectors was visible as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled about nine points or 0.09% higher at 10,165.76 points. The market had seen an intraday low of 10,146 points.

The foreign institutions were seen increasingly net buyers in the main market, whose year-to-date losses truncated further to 6.14%.

The local retail investors’ weakened net selling pressure had its influence in the main bourse, whose capitalisation added QR1.14bn or 0.19% to QR586.96bn on the back of microcap segments.

The Gulf institutions’ lower net profit booking had its say in the main market, which saw 7,928 exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.04mn trade across five deals.

The foreign individuals’ weakened net selling played its part in lifting the main bourse, which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.

The Islamic index was seen outperforming the main barometer in the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the decline.

The Total Return Index was up 0.09%, the All Share Index by 0.13% and the All Islamic Index by 0.12% in the main market.

The insurance sector index gained 0.88%, realty (0.42%), transport (0.21%), banks and financial services (0.18%), telecom (0.09%) and industrials (0.02%); while consumer goods and services declined 0.51%.

Major gainers in the main bourse included Ahlibank Qatar, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Qatar Insurance, Mannai Corporation, Gulf Warehousing, Industries Qatar, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar and Ooredoo.

Nevertheless, Inma Holding, Mekdam Holding, Commercial Bank, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Widam Food, Al Khaleej Takaful and Vodafone Qatar were among the losers in the main bourse. In the venture market, both Al Mahhar Holding and Techno Q saw their shares depreciate in value.

The foreign institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR18.56mn compared to QR5.53mn on July 8.

The Qatari individual investors’ net selling fell noticeably to QR22.92mn against QR27.69mn the previous day.

The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR9.86mn compared to QR14.33mn on Monday.

The foreign individual investors’ net selling shrank markedly to QR0.84mn against QR2.98mn on July 8.

However, the Arab retail investors’ net selling expanded notably to QR3.34mn compared to QR2mn the previous day.

The Gulf individual investors’ net profit booking increased notably to QR1.44mn against QR0.24mn on Monday.

The domestic institutions’ net buying weakened drastically to QR19.86mn compared to QR41.72mn on July 8.

The Arab institutions had no major net exposure against net sellers to the tune of QR0.09mn the previous day.

Trade volumes in the main market narrowed 27% to 111.65mn shares, value by 21% to QR365.37mn and transactions by 1% to 14,301.

The venture market saw 57% surge in trade volumes to 1.05mn equities and 44% in value to QR2.27mn but on 2% fall in deals to 146.