The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday continued its bearish run for the second consecutive day, mainly dragged down by selling pressure from foreign institutions.
The industrials, real estate and banking counters witnessed higher than average selling, leading to a 0.24% dip in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 10,111.62 points.
Local and Gulf retail investors also turned bearish in the market, whose sensitive index registered 1.82% declines year-to-date.
Market capitalisation shed 0.28%, or about QR2bn, to QR578.66bn mainly owing to mid and microcap cap segments.
Islamic equities were seen declining slower than the main index in the market, where domestic institutions turned bullish.
Trade turnover grew amidst lower volumes in the bourse, where the realty, industrials and banking sectors together accounted for about 88% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index shed 0.24% to 18,111.79 points, the All Share Index by 0.42% to 3,077.91 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.17% to 2,390.68 points.
The industrials index declined 1.06%, real estate (0.74%), bank and financial services (0.4%) and consumer goods (0.02%); whereas insurance gained 0.83%, transport (0.77%) and telecom (0.09%).
Major decliners included Industries Qatar, Ezdan, Qatar Electricity and Water, Mazaya Qatar, Nakilat, Dlala, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank and Commercial Bank; while Milaha, Gulf Warehousing, Gulf International Services, Qatar Insurance, Barwa, Qatar First Bank and Ahlibank Qatar were among the prime gainers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net profit takers to the tune of QR10.05mn against net buyers of QR11.81mn on Wednesday.
Local retail investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR6.24mn compared with net buyers of QR15.78mn on February 27.
Gulf individuals turned net sellers to tune of QR4.05mn against net buyers of QR1.05mn the previous day.
However, domestic funds were net buyers to the extent of QR18.25mn compared with net sellers of QR25.89mn on Wednesday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying increased perceptibly to QR3.51mn against QR2.03mn on February 27.
Gulf institutions’ net profit booking eased noticeably to QR1.88mn compared to QR4.78mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 18% to 9.45mn shares, while value grew 21% to QR337.38mn despite 27% lower transactions at 5,124.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 55% to 0.17mn equities, value by 42% to QR15.75mn and deals by 47% to 266.
The real estate sector reported a 32% plunge in trade volume to 3.63mn stocks, 29% in value to QR56.29mn and 44% in transactions to 1,344.
The transport sector’s trade volume tanked 22% to 0.25mn shares, value by 6% to QR6.6mn and deals by 11% to 218.
There was a 16% shrinkage in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.36mn equities, 20% in value to QR9.34mn and 47% in transactions to 261.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume declined 10% to 1.86mn stocks, while value shot up 65% to QR162.38mn despite 13% lower deals at 1,071.
The industrials sector’s trade volume was down 2% to 2.79mn shares, whereas value expanded 51% to QR73.81mn despite 16% lower transactions at 1,692.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 0.39mn equities and value more than doubled to QR13.22mn on a 47% surge in deals to 272.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
