The Qatar Stock Exchange on Sunday snapped four consecutive days of bullish run to witness its key index settle at sub-9,000 levels and capitalisation retreat below QR500bn.
Stronger profit booking, particularly in the real estate and banking scrips, led the 20-stock Qatar Index decline 0.62% to 8,992.81 points.
Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank sponsored exchange traded funds QATR and QETF reported 2.67% and 5.51% declines respectively.
Foreign funds’ substantially weakened buying interests and increased net selling by Gulf individuals dragged the market, which is however up 5.51% year-to-date.
Large and midcap stocks witnessed higher sell-off, leading to 0.75% shrinkage in market capitalisation to QR497.42bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the market, where industrials and banking sectors together accounted for about 66% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index shrank 0.62% to 15,844.32 points, All Share Index by 0.71% to 2,630.71 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.29% to 2,196.12 points.
The realty index tanked 1.26%, banks and financial services (1.07%), insurance (0.47%), industrials (0.41%) and telecom (0.01%); whereas transport and consumer goods gained 0.89% and 0.05% respectively.
More than 56% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Commercial Bank, Ezdan, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, QNB, Qatar Oman Investment, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Industries Qatar, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Vodafone Qatar were among the losers; while Qatari Investors Group, Ooredoo, Nakilat and Gulf Warehousing were among the gainers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened substantially to QR30.02mn compared to QR118.46mn on May 24.
The Gulf individuals’ net profit booking increased influentially to QR9.97mn against QR1.44mn the previous trading day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling also shot up to QR3.76mn compared to mere QR0.08mn last Thursday.
However, domestic funds’ net profit booking declined considerably to QR10mn against QR72.89mn on May 24.
Local individual investors’ net selling shrank significantly to QR0.33mn compared to QR31.1mn the previous trading day.
The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking shrank perceptibly to QR5.99mn against QR12.88mn late Thursday.
Total trade volume fell 39% to 7.23mn shares, value by 36% to QR250.6mn and transactions by 20% to 3,659.
The industrials sector reported 53% plunge in trade volume to 2.55mn equities, 42% in value to QR69.21mn and 30% in deals to 815.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 48% to 0.12mn stocks, value by 48% to QR3.91mn and transactions by 53% to 82.
The real estate sector saw 41% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.49mn shares, 36% in value to QR6.58mn and 59% in deals to 193.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 40% to 0.18mn equities, value by 26% to QR15.12mn and transactions by 39% to 279.
The banks and financial services sector witnessed 38% decline in trade volume to 2.22mn stocks and 36% in value to QR132.58mn but on 7% jump in deals to 1,731.
The transport sector’s trade volume was down 4% to 0.69mn shares, value by 14% to QR11.63mn and transactions by 16% to 279.
However, there was 45% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.97mn equities and 7% in value to QR11.57mn but on 17% slump in deals to 280.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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