By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter


The Qatar Exchange yesterday broke the 11,500 levels and capitalisation settled near QR603bn on buying support especially in telecom, industrials and banking stocks.
Domestic institution’s net buying pressure was instrumental in lifting the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) for the sixth straight session by 0.55% to 11,515.5 points.
The 20-stock Total Return Index rose 0.57% to 16,546.99 points, the All Share Index (with wider constituents) by 0.6% to 2,863.62 and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.54% to 3,291.94 points.
All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Telecom stocks surged 1.84%, followed by industrials (0.82%), banks and financial services (0.77%), insurance (0.2%) and consumer goods (0.17%), whereas transport and real estate fell 0.97% and 0.68% respectively.
More than 56% of the traded stocks strengthened with influential gainers being QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, al khaliji, International Islamic, Gulf International Services and Al Meera.
However, Alijarah Holding, Qatari Investors Group, Mazaya Qatar, Untied Development Company, Barwa and Nakilat were seen bucking the trend.
Market capitalisation rose 0.69%, or more than QR4bn, to QR602.98bn. Large cap equities gained about 1%, followed by small caps (0.53%) and mid caps (0.13%).
Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR13.56mn against net sellers of QR21.57mn on Wednesday.
Foreign institutions’ net buying amounted to QR30.55mn compared to QR13.38mn the previous day.
However, Qatari retail investors turned net sellers to the extent of QR38.17mn against net buyers of QR37.5mn on Wednesday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling stood at QR5.94mn compared to QR29.39mn the previous day.
Total trading volume rose 13% to 19.99mn stocks and value by 1% to QR761.83mn, while transactions were down 8% to 6,891.
The insurance sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 0.56mn equities and value almost tripled to QR35.71mn on a 61% jump in deals to 234.
The telecom sector saw its trading volume surge 34% to 5.83mn shares, value by 46% to QR92.7mn and transactions by 18% to 783.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 16% expansion in trading volume to 5.22mn stocks, 13% in value to QR279.3mn and 21% in deals to 2,695.
The real estate sector’s trading volume gained 14% to 4.53mn equities and value by 6% to QR110.21mn, but transactions fell less than 1% to 744.
The market witnessed an 8% rise in consumer goods sector’s trading volume to 1.71mn shares but on a 40% fall in value to QR81.23mn and 27% in deals to 860.
However, the transport sector’s trading volume plummeted 39% to 1.04mn stocks, value by 40% to QR26.24mn and transactions by 57% to 352.
The industrials sector’s trading volume shrank 20% to 1.14mn equities, value by 5% to QR136.44mn and deals by 28% to 1,223.


UAE bourses resume rally

Stock markets in the UAE recovered from a brief bout of profit-taking yesterday.
Dubai’s bourse rose 1.3% after dipping into negative territory in early trade as investors took profits in contractor Drake and Scull and other stocks.
Abu Dhabi’s bourse also recovered from an early dip to end 0.5% higher as banks rallied, although developer Aldar shed another 1.5% after disappointing investors with its proposed dividend on Wednesday.
Bahrain’s bourse rose 0.2%, largely on the back of heavyweight Aluminium Bahrain which proposed increasing its total dividend payout for 2013 by 28% on Wednesday.
The firm’s fourth-quarter profit fell 74%, although this was largely due to a one-off gain in the year-earlier period. Its stock rose 2.5%.
Elsewhere, Oman’s index rose 0.2% to 7,173 points; Saudi Arabia’s index climbed 0.2% to 8,930 points, while Kuwait’s index slipped 0.2% to 7,843 points.