By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Domestic and Gulf institutions’ net buying steered the Qatar Stock Exchange into positive trajectory and its key index gained 25 points to stay afloat above 10,800 levels.

Buying was more pronounced in the consumer goods, insurance, telecom and real estate counters as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 0.23% to 10,827.66 points amid shrinkage in overall volumes.

Local retail investors continued to be net buyers but with lesser intensity and their Gulf counterparts’ net selling considerably weakened in the market, which is, however, down 11.87% year-to-date.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the banking and transport sectors, which together constituted about 63% of the volume.

Market capitalisation was up 0.17% or about QR1bn to QR568.69bn with small and large cap equities gaining 0.49% and 0.08%; whereas micro and mid caps fell 0.73% and 0.08% respectively.

The Total Return Index rose 0.23% to 16,830.05 points, All Share Index by 0.19% to 2,886.05 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.47% to 4,077.12 points.

Consumer goods stocks gained 0.93%, insurance (0.71%), telecom (0.66%), realty (0.65%) and industrials (0.24%); while transport fell 0.5% and banks and financial services (0.16%).

Major gainers included Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Barwa, Ezdan, Ooredoo and Qatar General and Reinsurance; even as Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Al Khaleej Takaful, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat bucked the trend.

Domestic institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR21.87mn compared to QR0.79mn on November 17.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR3.2mn against net sellers of QR7.21mn on Tuesday.

The GCC individual investors’ net selling significantly declined to QR3mn against QR343.8mn the previous day.

However, non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR25.48mn compared with net buyers of QR283.8mn on November 17.

Non-Qatari individual investors were also net profit takers to the tune of QR5.28mn against net buyers of QR0.36mn on Tuesday.

Local retail investors’ net buying declined to QR8.69mn compared to QR66.06mn the previous day.

Total trade volume fell 76% to 4.17mn shares, value by 75% to QR179.56mn and deals by 6% to 2,976.

The banks and financial services sector reported 88% plunge in trade volume to 1.43mn equities and 83% in value to QR86.67mn but on 10% jump in transactions to 1,110.

The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 80% to 0.03mn stocks and value by 81% to QR2.38mn, while deals grew 17% to 74.

The market witnessed 62% shrinkage in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.33mn shares, 61% in value to QR8.17mn and 17% in transactions to 245.

The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 61% to 0.62mn equities, value by 60% to QR13.87mn and deals by 11% to 362.

There was 60% decline in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 0.41mn stocks, 65% in value to QR29.81mn and 20% in transactions to 634.

The transport sector’s trade volume shrank 36% to 1.15mn shares, value by 32% to QR30.81mn and deals by 16% to 392.

However, the consumer goods sector saw 36% surge in trade volume to 0.19mn equities, 68% in value to QR7.85mn and 29% in transactions to 159.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.