Buying interests – especially in the insurance, industrials and telecom stocks – extended the bullish run in the Qatar Stock Exchange for the fifth straight session on Monday and its key index gained 95 points to inch near the 10,400 levels.

Local retail investors turned net buyers as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 0.92% to 10,397.36 points.

Increased buying support from Gulf institutions also helped the market, which is, however, down 15.37% year-to-date.

Small and mid cap equities were seen high in demand in the bourse, where overall volumes expanded.

However, domestic institutions turned bearish and there was increased profit-booking by their foreign counterparts in the bourse, where the industrials, telecom and banking sectors dominated the trading ring as their stocks accounted for more than 70% of the volumes.

Market capitalisation expanded 0.86%, or about QR5bn, to QR549.3bn with small, mid, large and micro cap equities gaining 0.93%, 0.83%, 0.76% and 0.18% respectively.
The Total Return Index rose 0.92% to 16,162.12 points, the All Share Index by 0.84% to 2,765.4 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.99% to 3,845.21 points.

Insurance stocks appreciated 2.02%, followed by industrials (1.94%), telecom (1.6%), real estate (0.8%), consumer goods (0.43%) and banks and financial services (0.24%); while transport fell 0.36%.

More than 73% of the traded stocks extended gains with major gainers being Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Qatar Insurance, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Gulf International Services, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Ezdan, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, al khaliji, Alijarah Holding, Islamic Holding Group and Widam Food; even as Nakilat, Milaha and Qatari Investors Group bucked the trend.

Local retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR12.2mn against net sellers of QR16.94mn the previous day.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR9.07mn against QR2.46mn on December 27.

However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR9.8mn compared with net buyers of QR11.71mn on Sunday.

The GCC individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR0.7mn against net buyers of QR0.87mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying weakened to QR2.77mn compared to QR3.18mn on December 27.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit-booking increased to QR13.52mn against QR1.3mn on Sunday.

Total trade volume rose 69% to 6.2mn shares, value by 99% to QR249.97mn and deals by 47% to 3,255.

The transport sector’s trade volume grew more than seven-fold to 0.31mn equities and value by about 10-fold to QR12.91mn on almost-doubled transactions to 99.

The insurance sector’s trade volume rose five-fold to 0.1mn stocks and value by more than seven-fold to QR6.02mn on more-than-eight-fold-jump in deals to 107.

The real estate sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.86mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR19.83mn on a 70% expansion in transactions to 340.

The telecom sector saw an 82% surge in trade volume to 1.22mn equities and value more than doubled to QR25.37mn on a 78% growth in deals to 586.

The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 64% to 2.2mn stocks, value by 85% to QR116.02mn and transactions by 49% to 1,203.

The banks and financial services sector reported a 40% increased in trade volume to 0.95mn shares, 86% in value to QR51.28mn and 27% in deals to 636.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume was up 6% to 0.54mn equities and value by 39% to QR18.54mn, while transactions shrank 10% to 284.

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