By Santhosh V Perumal

Business Reporter

Foreign institutions’ net-bought equities worth QR171mn, helping the Qatar Stock Exchange inch near the 13,300 mark.

Buying interest was squarely visible in the real estate, transport and industrials as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) surged 1.08% to 13,279.27 points.

However, domestic institutions net selling pressure strengthened in the market, which is up 27.94% year-to-date.

The index that tracks Shariah-compliant stocks rose faster than the other indices in the market, where trading volumes expanded.

Local retail investors continued to be bearish in the bourse, where trading volumes were largely skewed towards real estate, banking and industrials stocks.

Market capitalisation rose 0.47%, or more than QR3bn, to QR698.82bn. Mid, micro, large and small-cap equities gained 1.35%, 1.09%, 0.86% and 0.62% respectively.

The 20-stock Total Return Index rose 1.08% to 19,805.91 points, the All Share Index (with wider constituents) 1.06% to 3,361.39 and the Al Rayan Islamic Index rose 1.16% to 4,580.3 points.

All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.

Realty stocks appreciated 3.05%, followed by transport (1.86%), industrials (1.02%), banks and financial services (0.91%), telecom (0.9%) and insurance (0.58%); while consumer goods were down 0.06%.

Foreign institutions’ net buying surged to QR170.83mn against QR50.83mn on Monday.

Domestic institutions’ net selling, however, increased to QR102.08mn compared to QR36.01mn the previous day.

Local retail investors’ net profit-booking enhanced to QR69.13mn against QR14.45mn on Monday.

Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.38mn compared with net sellers of QR0.37mn the previous trading day.

More than 65% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being QNB, Industries Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Salam International Investments and Qatari Investors Group.

However, Qatar Islamic Bank, Islamic Holding Group, Mannai Corp, Doha Insurance and Ezdan were seen to buck the trend.

Mazaya Qatar was the most active in terms of both volume and value respectively.

Total trading volume gained 59% to 24.33mn stocks, value by 28% to QR949.58mn and transactions by 35% to 10,021.

The transport sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 1.37mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR39.01mn on more than doubled deals to 387.

The telecom sector saw its trading volume shoot up 96% to 2.31mn shares, value by 46% to QR50.78mn and transactions by 25% to 440.

The industrials sector’s trading volume soared 85% to 3.38mn stocks, value by 60% to QR261.1mn and deals by 43% to 2,962.

The banks and financial services sector reported a 67% surge in trading volume to 6.74mn equities, 9% in value to QR300.24mn and 37% in deals to 2,827.

The insurance sector’s trading volume expanded 67% to 0.5mn shares, value by 85% to QR26.19mn and transactions by 68% to 306.

The real estate sector’s trading volume gained 47% to 7.96mn stocks, value by 53% to QR198.97mn and deals by 37% to 2,189.

However, there was a less than 1% fall in the consumer goods sector’s trading volume to 2.05mn equities, 33% in value to QR73.29mn and 9% in transactions to 910.

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

Property stocks boost Egypt; soft oil dampens Saudi

Reuters

Dubai

Property stocks led Egypt’s main share index to a six-year high yesterday, while soft international oil prices ended an 11-day rising streak for Saudi Arabia’s stock market.

The main Egyptian benchmark rose 0.4%, its sixth gain in seven sessions, to 9,274 points, bringing its gains to 87% since the army ousted president Mohamed Mursi in July 2013.

SODIC, Egypt’s third-largest listed property developer, jumped 9.5%, while its larger rivals Talaat Moustafa and Palm Hill Development Co gained 1.0 and 2.1% respectively.

“It’s housing and real estate today, but the banking sector in the past few weeks was a major contributor to the index gains, led by CIB and EFG Hermes,” said Mohamed Radwan, head of equities at Pharos Securities in Cairo.

Commercial International Bank (CIB) climbed 0.2% yesterday to stand up 39% in 2014, while EFG Hermes rose 2.9% to its highest close since January 2011.

“The market had been under pressure for three years - longer if you include the global financial crisis - and it made a fresh start with Mursi ousted and Sisi coming on board,” said Radwan, referring to the election of former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as president in May.

A Human Rights Watch report yesterday called for a UN enquiry into what the group described as systematic killings of demonstrators that likely amounted to crimes against humanity. This had no significant impact on the market.

“The market has been resilient to any negative news in recent weeks and months, even to terrorist attacks that happen on a random basis,” said Radwan. “This is because of high local participation in the market, compared to foreign investors who have been absent. If foreigners were more involved, we would have seen a more negative reaction.”

“Institutions are getting more involved in Egyptian stocks in terms of both volume and value,” said Allen Sandeep, director of research at Naeem Holdings in Cairo.

Yet foreign funds still account for under 10% of market turnover, he estimated. “Sooner or later that percentage will increase. We might see a few minor market corrections, but the longer-term trend is moving only one way and that is up.”

Saudi Arabia’s index slipped 0.1% from Monday’s six-year high as Brent crude oil slumped to a nine-month low. This ended an 11-session winning streak that was sparked by authorities announcing plans to allow direct foreign ownership of shares from early next year.

“The announcement has led investors to not really look at market fundamentals, but the weakness in oil prices will have an impact, especially for Saudi’s petrochemical companies, and so may trigger a correction,” said Sebastien Henin, head of asset management at The National Investor in Abu Dhabi.

In the UAE, the Dubai and Abu Dhabi benchmarks each fell 0.2% in sluggish trade.

The Dubai-listed shares of Gulf Finance House, however, rose 1.9% and trading volume surged after it said it would list a planned $200mn sukuk issue on NASDAQ Dubai.

The issuance, part of a previously announced scheme to restructure liabilities, will be conducted in coming months subject to regulatory approvals, the company said.

Oman Telecommunications (Omantel) rose 0.6% after it posted a flat second-quarter net profit of 31.5mn rials ($81.8mn) that beat analysts’ forecasts, despite revenue declining.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait’s index edged up 0.1% to 7,235 points; Bahrain’s measure fell 0.7% to 1,478 points, while Oman’s benchmark slipped 0.1% to 7,292 points.