By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

The Qatar Exchange remained bullish for the third day yesterday with realty, transport and industrials stocks lifting investor sentiment.

Small, mid and micro caps were in demand as the 20-stock QE Index (based on price data) settled 0.67% higher at 8,407.10 points. The market is, however, down 4.24% year-to-date.

The 20-stock Total Return Index also rose 0.67% to 11,377.84 points and the All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.60% to 2,019.59 points respectively. Both the indices factored in dividend income as well.

Under the All Share Index category, the real estate index surged 1.40%, followed by transport (1.03%), industrials (0.99%), insurance (0.77%), telecom (0.45%), banks and financial services (0.26%) and consumer goods (0.10%).

More than 69% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being QNB, Industries Qatar (IQ), Barwa, Nakilat, National Leasing, Mawashi, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services (GIS) and Vodafone Qatar.

Market capitalisation expanded 0.24% or more than QR1bn to QR458.27bn with small, mid, micro and large cap equities gaining 1.05%, 0.86%, 0.85% and 0.33% respectively.

Of the 42 stocks, 29 advanced, while only four declined, six were unchanged and three were not traded.

Foreign institutions’ net buying fell to 8.79% or QR18.50mn. A marginally lower 50.15% of them were into buying against 51.94% the previous trading day, while a marginally higher 41.36% of them into selling compared to 40.64%.

However, domestic institutions’ net selling surged to 10.16% or QR21.38mn. A marginally lower 11.85% of them bought equities compared to 12.50% on Monday, whereas a higher 22.01% offloaded against 19.32%.

Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of 1.79% or QR3.77mn. A marginally higher 29.56% of them purchased equities compared to 29.11% previous day while a lower 27.77% sold against 31.23%.

Non-Qatari retail investors’ net buying sunk to 0.42% or QR0.88mn. A higher 8.44% of them were into buying against 6.45% on Monday and a marginally higher 8.86% compared to 8.81%.

Total trading volume gained 32% to 3.96mn shares, value by 18% to QR210.47mn and deals by 17% to 2,542.

The telecom sector’s trading volume quadrupled to 0.20mn shares, while value was flat at QR2.63mn but transactions gained 63% to 104.

The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 0.43mn shares and so did value to QR20.07mn on a 34% jump in deals to 317.

The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume surged 19% to 1.66mn shares, value by 28% to QR97.80mn and transactions by 6% to 959.

The real estate sector’s trading volume soared 16% to 0.37mn shares, whereas value fell 7% to QR7.54mn and deals by 10% to 180.

The transport sector’s trading volume expanded 15% to 0.15mn shares, value by 22% to QR3.25mn and transactions more than doubled to 165.

The industrials sector’s trading volume was up 5% to 0.89mn shares, while value fell 1% to QR74.33mn but deals gained 29% to 736.

However, the insurance sector’s trading volume plummeted 75% to 0.01mn shares, value by 94% to QR0.17mn and transactions by 50% to 14.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Masraf Al Rayan (505,309 shares); GIS (424,124); Nakilat (373,784); QNB (355,721) and IQ (339,052).