The telecom and banking counters witnessed the most buying pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index surged 1.66% to 11,853.01 points yesterday.

By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday added another 194 points to its main index and more than QR10bn in capitalisation on the back of strong buying support from both foreign and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions.
The telecom and banking counters witnessed the most buying pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index surged 1.66% to 11,853.01 points on higher overall trade volumes.
Six of the seven sectors experienced buying interests in the market, which is, however, down 3.52% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was, however, seen gaining slower than the other indices in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate, banking and industrials sectors, whose stocks together constituted more than 73% of the overall trading volume.
Market capitalisation rose 1.66% to QR623.78bn with large, micro and mid cap equities gaining 2.35%, 0.77% and 0.71% respectively; even as small caps fell 0.32%.
The Total Return Index gained 1.66% to 18,423.8 points, the All Share Index by 1.47% to 3,138.51 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.32% to 4,492 points.
Telecom stocks appreciated 3.37%, followed by banks and financial services (2.17%), industrials (1.35%), real estate (0.97%), consumer goods (0.28%) and transport (0.16%); even as insurance was down 0.13%.
More than 64% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Ooredoo, Industries Qatar, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, QIIB, Masraf Al Rayan, Gulf International Services, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Barwa and Vodafone Qatar; whereas Qatari Investors Group, Nakilat and Islamic Holding Group bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying substantially strengthened to QR124.82mn against QR38.18mn the previous day.
GCC institutions’ net buying also surged to QR60.77mn compared to QR43.22mn on September 9.
GCC individual investors’ net selling weakened to QR0.8mn against QR23.8mn on Wednesday.
However, domestic institutions’ net profit-booking soared to QR71.39mn compared to QR26.51mn the previous day.
Local retail investors’ net selling increased to QR63.71mn against QR25.01mn on September 9.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit-booking expanded to QR49.69mn compared to QR6.03mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume rose 7% to 14.95mn shares and value by 21% to QR667.85mn, while deals were down 4% to 7,444.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than six-fold to 0.67mn equities and value more than tripled to QR27.84mn; even as there was a 46% decline in transactions to 69.
The industrials sector saw a 33% surge in trade volume to 2.67mn stocks, 65% in value to QR177.49mn and 4% in deals to 2,288.
The telecom sector’s trade volume expanded 15% to QR1.42mn shares, value by 4% to QR35.29mn and transactions by 9% to 862.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 13% increase in trade volume to 3.2mn equities and 6% in value to QR225.32mn but on 3% fall in deals to 1,915.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume was up 4% to 0.71mn stocks and value by 76% to QR34.41mn, while transactions shrank 19% to 367.
However, the market witnessed a 14% slippage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 5.03mn shares, 14% in value to QR115.71mn and 3% in deals to 1,517.
The transport sector’s trade volume was down 6% to 1.26mn equities; while value expanded 41% to QR51.79mn. Transactions sunk 32% to 426.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.