By Santhosh V. Perumal
Business Reporter

Qatar Stock Exchange surpassed the 12,000 mark on Wednesday as its key index gained another 56 points for the fifth straight session, mainly lifted by insurance, transport and telecom stocks.
Domestic institutions’ increased net buying support and local retail investors’ lower net selling pressure helped the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.47% to 12,020.73 points as trade volumes also grew.
Both foreign institutions and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) individual investors turned bearish in the market, which is, however, down 2.16% year-to-date.
Mid equities witnessed the maximum buying interests in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate and banking sectors, whose stocks together constituted about 62% of the overall trading volume.
Market capitalisation expanded 0.32% or more than QR2bn to QR636.26bn with mid, large and small cap equities gaining 1%, 0.27% and 0.11% respectively; while micro caps were down 0.03%.
The Total Return Index gained 0.47% to 18,684.5 points, All Share Index by 0.4% to 3,209.81 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.16% to 4,655.43 points.
Insurance stocks appreciated 1.92%, transport (0.93%), telecom (0.58%), banks and financial services (0.44%), realty (0.31%) and consumer goods (0.11%); while industrials were down 0.1%.
About 63% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Qatar Insurance, Nakilat, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Aamal Company and Barwa; even as Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatari Investors Group and Ezdan bucked the trend.
Domestic institutions’ net buying increased further to QR20.62mn against QR3.8mn the previous day.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR11.14mn compared to QR11.46mn on July 14.
However, non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR7.65mn against net buyers of QR2.25mn on Tuesday.
The GCC individual investors’ net selling strengthened to QR4.29mn compared to QR0.82mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking rose to QR4.27mn against QR3.17mn on July 14.
The GCC institutions’ net buying weakened to QR6.67mn compared to QR9.4mn on Tuesday.
Total trade volume rose 37% to 4.21mn shares, value by 35% to QR180.89mn and deals by 26% to 2,665.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.26mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR6.22mn on 44% jump in transactions to 114.
The industrials sector saw 98% surge in trade volume to 0.81mn stocks, 59% in value to QR44.72mn and 43% in deals to 731.
The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 75% to 0.14mn shares and value by 76% to QR13.54mn, while transactions fell 11% to 89.
The telecom sector’s trade volume increased 50% to QR0.3mn equities more than doubling value to QR9.18mn and more than doubling deals to 294.
The banks and financial services sector reported 22% expansion in trade volume to 0.67mn stocks, 24% in value to QR47.07mn and 2% in transactions to 696.
The real estate sector’s trade volume shot up 19% to 1.94mn shares, value by 16% to QR53.89mn and deals by 26% to 593.
Although the consumer goods sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.1mn equities, there was 1% fall in value to QR6.27mn and 1% in transactions to 148.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.