Mid and micro-cap equities were seen most sought after on the QSE as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 1.11% to 12,415.93 points amid rise in trade volumes. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

By Santhosh V. Perumal
Business Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday crossed the 12,400 mark, mainly lifted by real estate, telecom and industrials stocks.
Mid and micro-cap equities were seen most sought after as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) gained 1.11% to 12,415.93 points as trade volumes also increased, buoyed by mild optimism in the global oil market.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster in the bourse, which is up 1.06% year-to-date.
Institutional investors were seen bullish in the market, where realty, telecom, banking and industrials stocks cornered about 93% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation expanded 1.25%, or more than QR8bn, to QR672.07bn with mid, micro and small cap equities gaining 1.36%, 1.23% and 0.79% respectively; while large caps fell 0.18%.
The Total Return Index rose 1.11% to 18,635.9 points, the All Share Index by 1.34% to 3,207.15 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.9% to 4,314.68 points.
Real estate stocks appreciated 5.97%, telecom (1.84%), industrials (1.41%), insurance (1.23%), transport (0.88%) and consumer goods (0.41%); while banks and financial services lost 0.2%.
More than 79% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Ezdan Real Estate, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf Warehousing, International Islamic, Dlala and Islamic Holding Group; even as Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB and Industries Qatar bucked the trend.
Foreign institutions’ net buying sunk to QR11.45mn compared to QR66mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR32.63mn against net sellers of QR40.49mn on February 3.
Qatari retail investors’ net selling rose to QR27.63mn compared to QR22.86mn on Tuesday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit-booking soared to QR16.56mn against QR2.73mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 78% to 28.69mn shares, value by 23% to QR962.57mn and transactions by 33% to 10,798.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 1.03mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR56.7mn on more than doubled deals to 740.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 5.84mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR108.09mn on a 57% jump in transactions to 1,378.
The real estate sector saw its trade volume more than doubled to 12.59mn shares, value surge 39% to QR291.13mn and deals by 62% to 3,187.
The banks and financial services reported a 37% expansion in trade volume 4.92mn stocks, 16% in value to QR244.83mn and 26% in transactions to 2,863.
The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 22% to 3.33mn equities but value fell 15% to QR195.99mn and deals by 1% to 2,047.
The transport sector’s trade volume rose 2% to 0.56mn shares, value by 80% to QR35.26mn and transactions by 52% to 310.
The insurance sector’s trade volume was down 2% to 0.43mn stocks whereas there was a 2% decline in value to QR30.56mn and 23% in deals to 273.
In the debt market, a total of 20,000 treasury bills valued at QR199.24mn changed hands across two transactions; while there was no trading of government bonds.