An across the board buying, particularly within transport and insurance counters, on Tuesday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange above 10,300 levels.
The bullish outlook of Gulf funds and weakened net selling by their domestic counterparts led the 20-stock index settle 0.43% higher at 10,340.45 points, amidst weakened trading.
Foreign institutions continued to be net buyers but with lesser intensity on the market, whose key benchmark is up 0.4% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation saw more than QR1bn or 0.25% jump to QR570.03bn mainly owing to microcap segments.
Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the other indices on the market, where local retail investors were increasingly net profit takers.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the bourse, where banking sector alone accounted for about 49% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index rose 0.43% to 19,027.31 points, All Share Index by 0.3% to 3,049.1 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.17% to 2,325.04 points.
The transport index gained 0.58%, insurance (0.5%), banks and financial services (0.31%), industrials (0.28%), telecom (0.22%), real estate (0.18%) and consumer goods (0.15%).
Major gainers included Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Qatar Electricity and Water, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance and Barwa; whereas QIIB, Dlala, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Qatar National Cement, Salam International Investment, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Ezdan and Vodafone Qatar were among the losers.
The Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR3.73mn against net sellers of QR5.63mn on November 18.
Domestic funds’ net profit booking declined noticeably to QR24.47mn compared to QR27.82mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net selling weakened marginally to QR0.14mn against QR0.34mn on Monday.
However, local retail investors’ net selling grew perceptibly to QR2.88mn compared to QR1.26mn on November 18.
The Gulf individuals were net sellers to the extent of QR1.36mn against net buyers of QR1.91mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying declined substantially to QR25.12mn compared to QR33.19mn on Monday.
Total trade volume fell 21% to 56.97mn shares, value by 23% to QR202.75mn and transactions by 31% to 4,987.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 55% to 5.9mn equities, value by 45% to QR12.58mn and deals by 47% to 493.
The industrials’ sector reported 53% plunge in trade volume to 8.83mn stocks, 50% in value to QR18.26mn and 42% in transactions to 888.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 47% to 2.16mn shares, value by 35% to QR18.59mn and deals by 51% to 468.
There was 32% shrinkage in the transport sector’s trade volume to 1.65mn equities, 42% in value to QR5.12mn and 57% in transactions to 133.
The real estate sector’s trade volume declined 13% to 8.97mn stocks, value by 31% to QR9.47mn and deals by 40% to 263.
The insurance sector saw 5% fall in trade volume to 1.55mn shares, 3% in value to QR4.09mn and 30% in transactions to 144.
However, the banks and financial services sector’s trade volume soared 27% to 27.91mn equities, while value was down 8% to QR134.63mn and deals by 9% to 2,598.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
