Qatar stocks extend winning streak to 3rd day on buying interest

Bullish sentiments continued on the Qatar Stock Exchange for the third consecutive day on Thursday to help the bourse to settle above 9,900 levels mainly on the back of buying interests from Gulf institutions.

The consumer goods, banking and real estate counters witnessed higher-than-average demand, helping the 20-stock Qatar Index to gain 0.13% to 9,902.48 points.

The Islamic equities were seen declining vis-a-vis gains in the other indices in the market which is up 16.18% year-to-date.

Doha Bank-sponsored exchange traded fund QETF reported 0.25% gains, while Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored QATR was unchanged.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the bourse, where the banking and transport sectors together accounted for about 51% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index rose 0.13% to 17,447.07 points and the All Share Index by 0.17% to 2,919.54 points, while the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) was down 0.03% to 2,350.11 points.

The consumer goods index soared 0.85%, followed by banks and financial services (0.27%), realty (0.23%), transport (0.09%) and telecom (0.05%); whereas insurance and industrials declined 0.5% and 0.11% respectively.

Major movers included Doha Bank, Woqod, QNB, Industries Qatar, Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat; while Dlala, Qatar Electricity and Water, Salam International Investment, Gulf International Services and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding were among the losers.

Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR10.91mn compared with net sellers of QR9.61mn on October 3.

Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking declined considerably to QR11.01mn against QR16.67mn the previous day.

However, local individual investors’ net selling increased significantly to QR30.16mn compared to QR11.59mn on Wednesday.

Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit-booking strengthened perceptibly to QR5.37mn against QR3.26mn on October 3.

Gulf individual investors’ net selling also grew marginally to QR0.44mn compared to QR0.21mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened significantly to QR36.1mn against QR41.35mn on Wednesday.

Total trade volume fell 9% to 4.71mn shares, value by less than 1% to QR177.93mn and transactions by 8% to 2,617.

The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 45% to 0.98mn equities, value by 51% to QR30.67mn and deals by 21% to 613.

The real estate sector reported a 22% plunge in trade volume to 0.58mn stocks, 42% in value to QR7.84mn and 34% in transactions to 299.

The telecom sector’s trade volume declined 6% to 0.33mn shares, value by 39% to QR4.78mn and deals by 3% to 197.

However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume soared 63% to 0.26mn equities to more than double value to QR27.1mn on almost doubled transactions to 308.

There was a 50% surge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.15mn stocks and 39% in value to QR5.35mn but on a 7% fall in deals to 57.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume expanded 20% to 1.4mn shares and value by 35% to QR81.59mn, while transactions were down 9% to 916.

The transport sector saw a 12% jump in trade volume to 1mn equities, 2% in value to QR20.6mn and 24% in deals to 227.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.