By Santhosh V. Perumal
Business Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange maintained its positive momentum for the second day to inch near the 12,000 mark, mainly lifted by consumer goods, industrial and insurance stocks.
Local retail investors’ bullish outlook and increased net buying support from foreign institutions helped the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.74% to 11,979.83 points as trade volumes also grew.
Small and mid cap stocks were seen outperforming the main index in the bourse, which is however down 2.49% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the market; where overall trading volume was skewed towards banks, realty and telecom stocks, which together accounted for more than 63%.
Market capitalisation rose 0.73% or about QR5bn to QR643.51bn with large, mid, small and micro cap stocks gaining 0.82%, 0.7%, 0.66% and 0.37% respectively.
The Total Return Index gained 0.74% to 18,615.72 points, All Share Index by 0.69% to 3,196.53 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.03% to 4,520.53 points.
Consumer goods and industrials stocks gained 1.37% each, insurance (0.97%), banks and financial services (0.65%), telecom (0.44%) and transport (0.2%); while real estate fell 0.31%.
More than 64% of the stocks witnessed gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Doha Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar and Vodafone Qatar.
However, Ezdan, Barwa, Nakilat, Dlala and Qatari Investors Group were seen bucking the trend.
Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR9.94mn against QR13.82mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR8.81mn compared to QR1.89mn on April 15.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR0.09mn against net sellers of QR0.15mn on Wednesday.
Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened to QR5.48mn compared to QR15.89mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the extent of QR3.05mn against net buyers of QR1.76mn on April 15.
The GCC institutions’ net profit booking strengthened to QR21.28mn compared to QR5.6mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume rose 54% to 11.12mn shares, value by 52% to QR468.64mn and transactions by 39% to 6,357.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 0.68mn equities and value almost doubled to QR16.31mn on more than doubled deals to 304.
The insurance sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.1mn stocks and value almost tripled to QR5.57mn on more than doubled transactions to 68.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.85mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR153.81mn on 36% jump in deals to 1,681.
The consumer goods sector saw its trade volume expand 99% to 1.57mn equities, value by 58% to QR37.61mn and deals by 51% to 771.
The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 62% to 2.06mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR56.3mn on more than tripled transactions to 1,148.
There was 15% expansion in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 1.78mn shares and 23% in value to QR145.04mn but on 1% fall in deals to 1,531.
However, the real estate sector’s trade volume was down less than 1% to 2.1mn equities and value by 4% to QR54mn; whereas transactions were up 6% to 854.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.