By Santhosh V. Perumal
Business Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange opened the week on weaker note on Sunday to lose 64 points and capitalisation sunk below QR600bn on an across-the-board selling, notably at the realty, industrials and telecom sectors.
Local and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) individual investors turned net profit takers as the 20-stock Qatar Index fell for the second day by 0.56% to 11,354.52 points on lower overall volumes.
Domestic institutions’ buying interest substantially weakened, exacerbating the bearish sentiments in the market, which is down 7.58% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting faster than the other indices on the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the banking and real estate sectors, whose stocks together constituted more than 62% of the trading volume.
Market capitalisation fell 0.5%, or more than QR3bn, to QR599.35bn with micro, large, mid and small cap equities falling 0.72%, 0.53%, 0.22% and 0.06% respectively.
The Total Return Index shrank 0.56% to 17,648.97 points, the All Share Index by 0.48% to 3,023 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.76% to 4,302.9 points.
Real estate stocks declined 0.91%, followed by industrials and telecom (0.65% each), insurance (0.51%), consumer goods (0.29%), banks and financial services (0.26%) and transport (0.13%).
About 73% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Ezdan, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan and Dlala; even as Gulf International Services and Qatari Investors Group bucked the trend.
Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR5.9mn against net buyers of QR37.82mn on September 17.
GCC individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR1.43mn compared with net buyers of QR7.64mn last Thursday.
Domestic institutions’ net buying plummeted to QR0.96mn against QR63.64mn the previous trading day.
However, non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR2.15mn compared with net sellers of QR61.81nmn on September 17.
GCC institutions’ net profit-booking weakened to QR1.75mn against QR55.49mn last Thursday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling declined to QR6mn compared to QR8.27mn the previous trading day.
Total trade volume fell 49% to 3.85mn shares, value by 54% to QR180.56mn and deals by 38% to 2,651.
The insurance sector saw a 91% plunge in trade volume to 0.06mn equities, 88% in value to QR3.73mn and 47% in transactions to 69.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 68% to 0.11mn stocks, value by 55% to QR13.06mn and deals by 1% to 160.
There was a 63% shrinkage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.69mn shares, 66% in value to QR39mn and 32% in transactions to 912.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 46% to 0.93mn equities, value by 39% to QR24.23mn and deals by 18% to 431.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 37% decline in trade volume to 1.46mn stocks, 47% in value to QR81.14mn and 58% in transactions to 641.
The transport sector’s trade volume sunk 18% to 0.09mn shares, value by 24% to QR2.3mn and deals by 53% to 70.
The market witnessed a 9% slide in the telecom sector’s trade volume to QR0.51mn equities, 7% in value to QR17.09mn and 13% in transactions to 368.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.