By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

The Qatar Exchange (QE) continued to reel under a bearish spell for the seventh straight session yesterday as the market awaits initial public offerings.

Foreign institutions were seen instrumental in dragging the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) by 0.57% to 8,333.11 points. The bourse wiped off the gains extracted from January this year.

Profit-booking was seen intense in the realty and industrial sectors in the market, which is down 0.31% year-to-date (YTD).

Investors are awaiting the maiden offers of Doha Global Investment and Barwa Bank.

Major losers included Industries Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, Barwa, United Development Company, Doha Bank, QNB, Masraf Al Rayan and Nakilat; even as Qatar Islamic Bank, Mazaya Qatar and Vodafone Qatar bucked the trend.

The 20-stock Total Return Index also fell 0.57% to 11,902.03 points, the All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.51% to 2,121.04 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.50% to 2,527.73 points. All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.

Under the All Share Index category, the index of real estate fell 1.20%, followed by industrials (0.98%), banks and financial services (0.35%), telecom (0.30%) and transport (0.25%); while insurance gained 0.87% and consumer goods rose 0.06%.

Consumer goods, telecom, industrials, transport and banking sectors outperformed the key indices, gaining YTD 12.65%, 10.97%, 10.68%, 5.40% and 2.10% respectively; even as realty and insurance indices shrank 5.51% and 0.50%.

Market capitalisation eroded 0.45%, or more than QR2bn, to QR460.99bn with large, mid and small cap equities melting 0.46%, 0.33%, 0.24% respectively. Micro caps rose 0.07%.

Micro, small and large cap equities have reported 5.54%, 1.67% and 0.06% declines YTD respectively; whereas mid caps gained 1.29%.

Of the 42 stocks, only 15 advanced, while 18 declined, three were unchanged and six were not traded.

Foreign institutions’ net selling surged to 10.51% or QR19.16mn. A higher 38.12% of them bought equities against 27.01% the previous day, but a much higher 48.63% offloaded compared to 29.73%.

Domestic institutions’ net buying sunk to 2.94% or QR5.36mn. A marginally higher 16.87% of them were into buying against 16.56% on Sunday and a higher 13.93% of them into selling compared to 11.71%.

Qatari individual investors’ net buying rose to 4.21% or QR7.67mn. A much lower 30.92% of them purchased equities against 40.33% the previous day and a much lower 26.71% sold compared to 37.93%.

Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of 3.37%, or QR6.14mn. A lower 14.09% of them bought equities against 16.10% on Sunday, but a much lower 10.72% sold compared to 20.64%.

Total trading volume fell 15% to 4.91mn shares, while value was up less than 1% to QR182.29mn and deals by 10% to 3,184.

The telecom sector’s trading volume plummeted 38% to 1.46mn shares, value by 39% to QR16.99mn and transactions by 19% to 333.

The insurance sector’s trading volume plunged 33% to 0.02mn shares, value by 44% to QR0.78mn and deals by 4% to 23.

The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume tanked 30% to 0.87mn shares and value by 29% to QR38.07mn, whereas transactions were up 2% to 856.

The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume declined 9% to 0.40mn shares, value by 28% to QR17.85mn and deals by 34% to 269.

However, the industrials sector’s trading volume surged 55% to 0.85mn shares, value by 74% to QR85.13mn and transactions by 73% to 1,140.

The transport sector’s trading volume gained 12% to 0.66mn shares, while value fell 14% to QR11mn but deals rose 2% to 235.

The real estate sector’s trading volume expanded 8% to 0.64mn shares, while value lost 2% to QR12.47mn but transactions were up 6% to 328.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Vodafone Qatar (1.43mn shares); Nakilat (644,504); Barwa (461,494); IQ (444,971) and Barwa (354,488).

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills.