Foreign institutions continued to be bullish yesterday as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 0.88% to 11,788.71 points on higher overall trade volumes. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter

The bullish momentum on the Qatar Stock Exchange continued for the third consecutive day and its key index settled near the 11,800 mark, mainly on the back of strong buying in the industrials and real estate stocks.
Foreign institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 0.88% to 11,788.71 points on higher overall trade volumes.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the market, which is, however, down 4.05% year-to-date.
The Gulf institutions’ increased buying as well as lower selling pressure from local and non-Qatari retail investors also helped build positive sentiments in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the realty, industrials and banking sectors, which together constituted about 72% of the trading volume.
Market capitalisation rose 0.73%, or more than QR4bn, to QR618.27bn with large, micro and mid cap equities gaining 0.81%, 0.46% and 0.43% respectively; even as small caps were down 0.07%.
The Total Return Index gained 0.88% to 18,323.86 points, the All Share Index by 0.78% to 3,133.76 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.93% to 4,470.63 points.
Industrials stocks soared 1.41%, followed by real estate (0.88%), banks and financial services (0.73%), telecom (0.44%) and insurance (0.37%); while consumer goods and transport fell 0.11% and 0.05% respectively.
About 71% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Doha Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Dlala, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat; even as Qatar Electricity and Water, Milaha and Mannai Corp bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened to QR27.03mn compared to QR41.8mn on October 6.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR5.62mn against QR0.38mn on Tuesday.
Local retail investors’ net selling plummeted to QR7.14mn against QR19.21mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit-booking weakened to QR8.11mn compared to QR14.68mn on October 6.
However, domestic institutions’ net selling increased to QR7.77mn against QR2.92mn on Tuesday.
GCC individual investors’ net-profit booking surged to QR9.58mn compared to QR3.33mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 33% to 11.55mn shares, value by 67% to QR488.72mn and deals by 47% to 6,579.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.86mn equities and value more than tripled to QR187.37mn on almost-doubled-transactions to 2,153.
The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 91% to QR1.89mn stocks and value doubled to QR34.72mn on a 64% jump in deals to 602.
The banks and financial services sector reported 85% surge in trade volume to 2.42mn shares, 59% in value to QR133.99mn and 48% in transactions to 1,874.
The insurance sector’s trade volume expanded 50% to 0.12mn equities, value by 17% to QR7.65mn and deals by 29% to 107.
The market witnessed a 10% increase in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.85mn stocks, 61% in value to QR31.41mn and 39% in transactions to 507.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 59% to 0.41mn shares and value by 32% to QR16.35mn, while deals grew 13% by to 379.
There was a 14% shrinkage in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 2.99mn equities and 5% in value to QR77.23mn but on 4% rise in transactions to 957.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills, while as many as 1,000 government bonds valued more than QR10mn changed hands across one deal.