A resilient Qatar Stock Exchange Monday gained 122 points, on the back of strong buying interests of foreign institutions, after two consecutive days of sell-off owing to rising geopolitical uncertainty.
Insurance, industrials, real estate and telecom counters witnessed higher than average demand as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 1.18% to 10,408.16 points, amidst weakened trading activities.
The weakened net selling pressure from non-Qatari individuals also had its role on the market, which is up 1.18% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation saw about QR6bn or 1% increase to QR578.75bn mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining slower than the other indices on the bourse, where local retail investors and the Gulf funds were increasingly into profit booking.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline on the bourse, where banking, industrials, consumer goods and realty sectors together accounted for more than 87% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index gained 1.18% to 18,927.68 points, All Share Index by 1.04% to 3,085.82 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.78% to 2,290.17 points.
The insurance index soared 2.04%, industrials (1.54%), insurance (1.48%), telecom (1.41%), transport (1.1%) and banks and financial services (0.93%), while consumer goods fell 0.26%.
About 67% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Qatar Insurance, Industries Qatar, Milaha, Qatar Electricity and Water, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Alijarah Holding, Qatar Oman Investment, Barwa and Mazaya Qatar; even as Qatar First Bank, Dlala, Salam International Investment, Medicare Group, Aamal Company and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR59.38mn compared with net sellers of QR10.01mn on January 5.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking declined perceptibly to QR5.79mn against QR7.83mn the previous trading day.
However, local retail investors’ net selling expanded considerably to QR35.76mn compared to QR20.11mn on Sunday.
The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking also grew significantly to QR15.85mn against QR3.65mn on January 5.
Domestic funds were net sellers to the extent of QR1.04mn compared with net buyers of QR42.08mn the previous day.
The Gulf individual investors’ net profit booking grew marginally to QR0.94mn against QR0.45mn on Sunday.
Total trade volumes fell 32% to 83.05mn shares and value by 13% to QR260.65mn, while transactions grew 28% to 8,772.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 58% to 14.53mn equities, value by 48% to QR21.85mn and deals by 20% to 726.
The insurance sector reported 45% plunge in trade volume to 2.63mn stocks and 39% in value to QR6.2mn but on 12% jump in transactions to 325.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume tanked 30% to 22.8mn shares and value by 7% to QR130.92mn but on more than doubled deals to 4,042.
There was 26% shrinkage in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 2.96mn equities and 1% in value to QR14.41mn but on 73% increase in transactions to 784.
The industrials sector’s trade volume shrank 25% to 18mn stocks and value by 4% to QR42.68mn, while deals were up 10% to 1,526.
There was a 10% contraction in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 17.01mn shares and value more than quadrupled to QR35.41mn on more than tripled transactions to 1,475.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume soared 23% to 5.11mn equities and value by 21% to QR13.21mn, while deals were down 9% to 306.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
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