By Santhosh V. Perumal
Business Reporter

Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday slipped below 11,600 levels mainly on substantially lower buying interests of foreign institutions and higher net selling by both domestic and Gulf institutions.

Selling was seen more pronounced in realty, consumer goods, insurance and banking sectors as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.73% to 11,584.83 points amid rise in overall trade volumes.

Nevertheless local retail investors turned bullish in the market, which is down 5.71% year-to-date.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen falling slower than the other indices in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the transport, real estate and banking sectors, which together constituted more than 81% of the volume.

Market capitalisation eroded 0.78% or about QR5bn to QR608.02bn with micro, large and mid cap equities melting 0.83%, 0.73% and 0.24% respectively; even as small caps rose 0.38%.

The Total Return Index shed 0.73% to 18,006.95 points, All Share Index by 0.76% to 3,082.61 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.67% to 4,412.99 points.

Realty stocks shrank 1.33%, insurance (1.21%), consumer goods (1.19%), banks and financial services (0.79%), telecom (0.64%) and industrials (0.43%); while transport gained 0.44%.

About 61% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being QNB, Qatar National Cement, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Barwa, Ezdan, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar and Gulf Warehousing; even as Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank and Mazaya Qatar bucked the trend.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying considerably weakened to QR5.36mn against QR26.39mn on October 21.

Domestic institutions’ net profit booking soared to QR16.36mn compared to QR4.24mn the previous day.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling also strengthened to QR18.22mn against QR11.76mn on Wednesday.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying declined to QR0.57mn compared to QR12.37mn on October 21.

However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR42.47mn against net sellers of QR4.53mn the previous day.

The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking shrank to QR13.86mn compared to QR18.24mn on October 21.

Total trade volume rose 6% to 7.64mn shares and value by 22% to QR301.23mn (excluding rights to subscribe in the rights issue), while deals were down 1% to 3,753.

The transport sector’s trade volume grew almost five-fold to 3.22mn equities and value also by almost five-fold to QR80.48mn on almost tripled transactions to 815.

The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 60% to 0.08mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR7.01mn, while deals fell 10% to 74.

However, the market witnessed 65% plunge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.16mn shares, 47% in value to QR7.99mn and 32% in transactions to 185.

The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 42% to 1.59mn equities, value by 7% to QR45.99mn and deals by 9% to 588.

There was 38% shrinkage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.61mn stocks, 18% in value to QR46.06mn and 41% in transactions to 715.

The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 30% to 0.57mn shares, value by 20% to QR10.82mn and deals by 9% to 311.

The banks and financial services sector reported 8% fall in trade volume to 1.4mn equities but on 13% increase in value to QR102.88mn and 13% in transactions to 1,065.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills but as many as 2,000 government bonds valued at QR20.06mn changed hands across one deal.