The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday fell for the third straight session as it lost 102 points and its key index settled below 10,700 levels, reflecting the volatility in the global energy markets.The real estate and banking counters witnessed higher than average selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index fell 0.94% to 10,698.04 points.The market, which was highly skewed towards shakers, had touched an intraday high of 10,919 points, indicating demand generation especially during the first 15 minutes of the start.The foreign institutions were seen bearish in the main market, whose year-to-date gains truncated further to 0.16%.More than 69% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main bourse, whose capitalisation saw QR4.96bn or 0.8% contraction to QR606.8bn, mainly led by midcap segments.The domestic institutions turned net profit takers in the main market, which saw a total of 0.04mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.18mn changed hands across 11 deals.The Arab retail investors were seen net sellers in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.The Islamic index was seen declining slower than the main barometer in the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills.The Total Return Index shed 0.94%, the All Share Index by 0.97% and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.38% in the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the increase.The realty sector index tanked 3.48%, followed by banks and financial services (1.52%), consumer goods and services (0.57%), telecom (0.51%) and transport (0.45%); while industrials gained 0.24% and insurance 0.02%.Major shakers in the main market included Doha Bank, Widam Food, Dlala, Untied Development Company, Gulf Warehousing, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Inma Holding, Mekdam Holding, Baladna, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services and Barwa. In the venture market, Al Faleh Educational Holding saw its shares depreciate in value.Nevertheless, Qatar Cinema and Film Distribution, Qatar Electricity and Water, Estithmar Holding, Qatari German Medical Devices and Qatar National Cement were among the gainers in the main market.The foreign institutions were net sellers to the tune of QR39.39mn compared with net buyers of QR33.24mn on February 1.The domestic funds turned net profit takers to the extent of QR9.08mn against net buyers of QR16.88mn the previous day.The Arab individual investors were net sellers to the tune of QR7.79mn compared with net buyers of QR8.44mn on Wednesday.The Gulf institutions’ net buying weakened considerably to QR0.72mn against QR17.57mn on February 1.The foreign individuals’ net buying declined markedly to QR0.33mn compared to QR1.8mn the previous day.The Arab institutions’ net buying eased marginally to QR0.05mn against QR0.11mn on Wednesday.However, the local retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR54.02mn compared with net sellers of QR78.18mn on February 1.The Gulf retail investors’ net buying expanded perceptibly to QR1.13mn against QR0.13mn the previous day.The main market saw a a 29% jump in trade volumes to 196.93mn shares and 11% in value to QR716.24mn but on 1% fall in deals to 19,904.
February 02, 2023 | 11:09 PM