The Qatar Stock Exchange opened the week flat despite five of its seven sectors reeling under selling pressure.
Local retail investors turned bullish and there was lower selling pressure from domestic funds as the 20-stock Qatar Index added mere 0.02% to 7,827.5 points.
However, there was increased profit booking by Gulf funds and non-Qatari individuals and there was also lower buying support from foreign institutions on the market, whose year-to-date losses were at 25%.
Islamic equities were seen gaining marginally higher on the bourse, whose capitalisation was, however, down 0.23% to QR419.56bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the market, where banking and industrials sectors together accounted for more than 55% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index rose 0.02% to 13,126.26 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.05% to 2,946.93 points, while All Share Index fell 0.2% to 2,132.46 points.
The insurance index gained 0.21%, whereas consumer goods declined 0.53%, realty (0.4%), transport (0.3%), banks and financial services (0.19%) and industrials (0.18%). The telecom index was unchanged.
Major gainers included United Development Company, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Commercial Bank, Qatar First Bank, QIIB and Nakilat; even as Alijarah Holding, Dlala, Widam Food, Gulf International Services, Gulf Warehousing and Ezdan were among the losers.
Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR3.26mn compared with net sellers of QR10.58mn the previous trading day.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking weakened marginally to QR6.72mn against QR7.34mn on November 16.
However, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling rose to QR5.74mn compared to QR2.32mn last Thursday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling increased perceptibly to QR7.53mn against QR6.19mn the previous trading day.
The GCC retail investors turned net profit takers to the extent of QR0.16mn compared with net buyers of QR0.18mn on November 16.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying declined considerably to QR16.89mn against QR26.23mn last Thursday.
Total trade volume fell 64% to 2.2mn shares, value by 46% to QR89.47mn and deals by 38% to 1,677.
There was 78% plunge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.23mn equities, 64% in value to QR3.68mn and 46% in transactions to 123.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 75% to 0.35mn stocks, value by 78% to QR4.73mn and deals by 54% to 201.
The banks and financial services sector saw 63% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.71mn shares, value by 34% to QR47.89mn and transactions by 45% to 479.
The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 58% to 0.51mn equities, value by 60% to QR18.93mn and deals by 47% to 362.
The market witnessed 50% drop in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.03mn stocks, 55% in value to QR1.1mn and 28% in transactions to 46.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 30% to 0.14mn shares, while value grew 11% to QR7.68mn and deals by 24% to 239.
The transport sector reported 11% decline in trade volume to 0.24mn equities but value was up less than 1% to QR5.39mn despite flat transactions at 227.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
