Domestic institutions’ sustained buying interests and foreign individuals’ bullish outlook on Monday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange by about 40 points to place it near 10,500 levels.
An across the board buying – particularly at the insurance, telecom, transport and banking counters – led the 20-stock Qatar Index to settle 0.38% higher at 10,477.12 points.
More than 65% of the traded constituents extended gains to investors in the market, which is up 0.39% year-to-date.
Local retail investors and foreign funds were nevertheless increasingly net profit takers on the bourse, whose capitalisation gained more than QR2bn or 0.42% to QR605.24bn, mainly on midcap segments.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase as the industrials, consumer goods and banking sectors together accounted for about 78% of the total trading volume.
Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the other indices in the bourse, which saw Arab individuals were increasingly into net selling.
A total of 23,105 exchange traded funds (Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored QATR and Doha Bank-sponsored QETF) valued at QR134,073 changed hands across six deals; while in the debt market, there was no trading of sovereign bonds and treasury bills.
The Total Return Index gained 0.38% to 20,141.93 points, the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.36% to 2,404.41 points and the All Share Index by 0.52% to 3,216.73 points.
The insurance index shot up 2.52%, telecom (1.26%), transport (0.57%), banks and financial services (0.49%), real estate (0.31%), industrials (0.26%) and consumer goods and service (0.19%).
Major gainers included Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Gulf International Services, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Insurance, Vodafone Qatar, Doha Bank, QIIB, Al Khaleej Takaful, United Development Company, Ooredoo and Gulf Warehousing; even as Ahlibank Qatar, Qatari German Medical Devices, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Qatar Oman Investment and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding were among the losers.
Domestic institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR31.12mn against QR7.13mn on January 3.
Foreign individuals were net buyers to the tune of QR2.26mn compared with net sellers of QR0.64mn on Sunday.
Gulf institutions’ net profit booking declined notably to QR0.93mn against QR4.83mn the previous day.
However, Qataris turned net sellers to the extent of QR12.21mn compared with net buyers of QR4.22mn on January 3.
Foreign institutions’ net selling shot up considerably to QR10.27mn against QR0.59mn on Sunday.
Arab individuals’ net selling grew significantly to QR8.23mn compared to QR1.57mn the previous day.
Gulf individuals’ net selling strengthened perceptibly to QR1.69mn against QR0.16mn on January 3.
Arab funds had no major exposure compared with net profit takers to the tune of QR3.58mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 10% to 105.27mn shares, value by 74% to QR245.6mn and transactions by 69% to 5,284.
The transport sector’s trade volume grew more than six-fold to 2.59mn equities and value by about eight-fold to QR10.56mn on more-than-tripled deals to 290.
The telecom sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 2.72mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR10.51mn on almost-quadrupled-transactions to 450.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 40.62mn shares and value more than tripled to QR130.18mn on more-than-doubled deals to 2,035.
The industrials sector’s trade volume surged 46% to 20.07mn equities and value more than doubled to QR29.61mn on a 60% increase in transactions to 888.
However, there was a 52% plunge in the realty sector’s trade volume to 16.66mn stocks and 47% in value to QR25.07mn but on an 11% growth in deals to 726.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 42% to 1.7mn shares and value by 41% to QR3.97mn; whereas transactions shot up 21% to 161.
The consumer goods and services sector reported a 6% fall in trade volume to 20.92mn equities but on a 43% jump to QR35.07mn and 15% in deals to 734.
