By Santhosh V Perumal

Business Reporter

 Qatar Exchange continued to be bullish for the fourth straight session mainly on buying interests from local retail investors and domestic institutions.

The banking, consumer goods and realty sectors were seen lifting the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) by 0.13% to 8,845.65 points.

Foreign institutions were seen booking profits in the market, which is up 5.82% year-to-date (YTD).

More than 52% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being QNB, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Dlala, Qatari Investors Group, United Development Company (UDC) and Nakilat; even as Industries Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, Gulf International Services, Barwa and Vodafone Qatar bucked the trend.

The 20-stock Total Return Index also gained 0.13% to 12,638.40 points and the All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.11% to 2,255.17 points while the Al Rayan Islamic Index fell 0.18% to 2,680.93 points.

All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.

Under the All Share Index category, the index of banks and financial services gained 0.78%, followed by consumer goods (0.39%), insurance (0.37%) and real estate (0.27%), while industrials shrank 0.70%, telecom 0.58% and transport lost 0.24%.

Industrials, telecom, consumer goods, transport, insurance and banking sectors outperformed the key indices, gaining YTD 20.15%, 15.29%, 14.09%, 13.83%, 8.37% and 7.70% respectively. The realty index edged up 0.80%.

Market capitalisation was up 0.03%, or QR13mn, to QR489.06bn with small, micro, large and mid cap equities gaining 0.49%, 0.26%, 0.22% and 0.21% respectively.

Large, small and mid cap equities have gained YTD 6.31%, 5.65% and 5.17% respectively; while micro caps have lost 2.65%.

Of the 42 stocks, 22 advanced, while 14 declined, four were unchanged and two were not traded.

Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the extent of 6.49% or QR26.94mn. A higher 46.51% of them purchased equities against 43.77% on Monday, whereas a lower 40.02% sold compared to 45.39%.

Domestic institutions’ net selling sunk to 0.82% or QR3.40mn. A higher 22.18% of them were into buying against 20.91% the previous day, while a marginally lower 23% of them into selling compared to 23.20%.

Foreign institutions turned net sellers to the tune of 1.93% or QR8.01mn. A lower 19.93% of them bought equities against 24.50% on Monday, whereas a higher 21.86% offloaded compared to 16.73%.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit-booking fell to 3.73% or QR15.48mn. A marginally higher 11.38% of them bought equities against 10.83% the previous day and a marginally higher 15.11% sold compared to 14.68%.

Total trading volume was up 7% to 11.44mn shares, value by 24% to QR415.05mn and deals by 20% to 5,180.

The industrials sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 2.34mn shares, and value also more than doubled to QR110.58mn on an 83% jump in transactions to 1,318.

The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume surged 56% to 1.26mn shares, value by 83% to QR63.72mn and deals by 78% to 752.

The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume soared 44% to 3.43mn shares, value by 23% to QR152.67mn and transactions by 19% to 1,613.

The transport sector’s trading volume gained 3% to 0.99mn shares, whereas value fell 8% to QR20.81mn but deals expanded 24% to 562.

However, the telecom sector’s trading volume plunged 53% to 0.26mn shares, value by 55% to QR3.95mn and transactions by 40% to 148.

The real estate sector’s trading volume tanked 38% to 3.12mn shares, value by 36% to QR61.27mn and deals by 29% to 757.

Although the insurance sector’s trading volume was flat at 0.04mn shares, its valued gained 13% to QR2.04mn but transactions shrank 27% to 30.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were UDC (2.48mn shares); Qatari Investors Group (1.71mn); Medicare Group (994,238); Nakilat (881,926) and Commercial Bank (756,873).

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