An across-the-board buying on Monday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange 37 points to cross the 10,200 level.
Increased buying interests from foreign and domestic institutions led the 20-stock Qatar Index to gain 0.36% to 10,226.69 points.
Gulf individuals’ weakened net profit booking also had its role in the market, whose sensitive index has registered a 0.7% decline year-to-date.
Market capitalisation expanded 0.51%, or about QR3bn, to QR579.25bn mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.
Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the main index in the market, where local retail investors were increasingly bearish.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the bourse, where the realty, banking and industrials sectors together accounted for more than 81% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index grew 0.36% to 18,171.55 points, the All Share Index by 0.45% to 3,080.4 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.28% to 2,437.88 points.
The transport sector index expanded 1.1%, real estate (0.92%), industrials (0.67%), consumer goods (0.61%), insurance (0.52%), telecom (0.23%) and banks and financial services (0.1%).
Major gainers included Nakilat, Barwa, Ezdan, Industries Qatar, Ahlibank Qatar, QIIB, QNB and Qatar Islamic Insurance; even as Qatari Investors Group, Al Khaliji, Islamic Holding Group, Qatar Oman Investment, Alijarah Holding and Mazaya Qatar were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased influentially to QR87.93mn against QR23.66mn on February 24.
Domestic funds’ net buying strengthened substantially to QR35.22mn compared to QR22.32mn the previous day.
Gulf individual investors’ net profit booking shrank marginally to QR0.31mn against QR0.46mn on Sunday.
However, local retail investors’ net selling shot up significantly to QR99.54mn compared to QR40.06mn on February 24.
Gulf institutions’ net selling also expanded noticeably to QR21.48mn against QR8.39mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR1.82mn compared with net buyers of QR2.9mn on Sunday.
Total trade volume rose 4% to 8.6mn shares, value by 38% to QR314.49mn and transactions by 30% to 6,326.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew five-fold to 0.45mn equities and value by about five-fold to QR16.32mn on more-than-quadrupled deals to 262.
The telecom sector reported an 85% surge in trade volume to 0.48mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR12.86mn on more-than-doubled transactions to 464.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume shot up 24% to 2.52mn shares, value by 84% to QR136mn and deals by 75% to 1,757.
The real estate sector reported an 8% gain in trade volume to 2.54mn equities, 3% in value to QR41.86mn and 13% in transactions to 1,474.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 37% to 0.24mn stocks, value by 37% to QR5.79mn and deals by 8% to 183.
There was a 28% plunge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 1.91mn shares but on a 6% growth in value to QR55.18mn despite 4% lower transactions at 1,624.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume was down 9% to 0.48mn equities, whereas value increased 2% to QR46.47mn and deals by 36% to 562.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
