A day after making huge gains, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday remained flat despite weakened selling pressure from domestic institutions and local retail investors.
Amidst the buying interests in realty, insurance and transport, the 20-stock Qatar Index settled a mere 0.05% higher for the fifth straight session at 9,981.22 points.
Masraf Al Rayan- and Doha Bank-sponsored exchange traded funds QATR and QETF saw 0.27% and 0.21% gains respectively.
The Islamic equities were seen gaining faster than the other indices in the market, which reported 17.1% gains year-to-date.
Trade turnover fell amidst higher volumes in the bourse, where the real estate, banking and industrials sectors together accounted for more than 63% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index was up 0.05% to 17,585.8 points, the All Share Index by 0.27% to 2,913.96 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.2% to 2,410.11 points.
The realty index soared 1.49%, followed by insurance (0.9%), transport (0.56%), industrials (0.19%) and consumer goods (0.04%); whereas banks and financial services were down 0.07% and telecom 0.05%.
About 49% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Masraf Al Rayan, Alijarah Holding, Qatari Investors Group, Doha Insurance, Qatar Insurance, Ezdan and Nakilat; while Commercial Bank, Ahlibank, Al Khaleej Takaful and Vodafone Qatar were among the losers.
Local individual investors’ net selling declined considerably to QR7.05mn compared to QR21.57mn on August 1.
Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking shrank substantially to QR20.78mn against QR31.15mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari funds’ net buying weakened influentially to QR32.02mn compared to QR68.04mn on Wednesday.
Gulf institutions’ net profit-booking grew perceptibly to QR5.41mn against QR3.72mn on August 1.
However, the Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.12mn compared with net sellers of QR2.26mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals were net buyers to the extent of QR0.07mn against net profit-takers of QR9.37mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume rose 10% to 7.31mn shares, while value declined 23% to QR184.05mn and transactions by less than 1% to 3,808.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 0.84mn equities and value more than doubled to QR15.3mn on a 66% jump in deals to 313.
The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 79% to 0.95mn stocks, value by 41% to QR13.82mn and transactions by 21% to 319.
The industrials sector reported a 42% surge in trade volume to 1.01mn shares but on a 9% fall in value to QR36.56mn despite 12% higher deals at 878.
The insurance sector’s trade volume expanded 28% to 0.64mn equities, whereas value declined 41% to QR10.92mn and transactions by 16% to 171.
However, the banks and financial services sector saw a 31% plunge in trade volume to 1.48mn stocks and 42% in value to QR69.23mn but on a 1% rise in deals to 1,282.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 21% to 0.27mn shares, value by 15% to QR13.32mn and transactions by 35% to 177.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was down 1% to 2.12mn equities, value by 10% to QR24.9mn and deals by 21% to 668.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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