The Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday gained for the second consecutive day, adding 256 points to inch near the 9,900 mark, mainly on increased buying interests of foreign institutions.
An across-the-board-buying, particularly in insurance, real estate and consumer goods, lifted the 20-stock Qatar Index by another 2.67% to 9,857.2 points.
Both Gulf and non-Qatari individual investors turned bullish in the market, where trading turnover and volumes were also on the rise.
Nevertheless, buying support from local retail investors considerably weakened and there was increased net profit booking by Gulf institutions in the bourse, which is down 5.49% year-to-date.
Mid, small and large cap equities were the most sought after in the market, where realty, industrials and banking stocks together accounted for about 78% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation gained 2.17%, or more than QR11bn, to QR523.52bn with mid, small, large and micro cap stocks gaining 3.06%, 2.71%, 2.2% and 0.97% respectively.
The Total Return Index soared 2.67% to 15,373.29 points, the All Share Index by 2.57% to 2,627.38 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 2.64% to 3,537.03 points.
Insurance stocks appreciated 4.05%, followed by real estate (3.76%), consumer goods (2.83%), industrials (2.61%), banks and financial services (2.22%), transport (1.81%) and telecom (0.4%).
About 75% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Barwa, United Development Company, QNB, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Aamal Company, Woqod, Mannai Corporation, Qatar Electricity and Water, Qatar Insurance, Ooredoo and Nakilat; even as Gulf International Services and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR37.59mn against QR4.36mn on February 14.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR4.1mn compared with net sellers of QR1.19mn on Sunday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individuals were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.85mn against net sellers of QR0.74mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking fell to QR36.52mn compared to QR41.87mn on February 14.
However, local retail investors’ net buying weakened considerably to QR0.49mn against QR43.49mn on Sunday.
The GCC institutions’ net profit booking strengthened to QR6.5mn compared to QR4.1mn the previous day.
Total trade volume was up 3% to 8.37mn shares, value by 27% to QR303.6mn and deals by 40% to 4,899.
The transport sector’s trade volume grew more than seven-fold to 0.74mn equities and value more than five-fold to QR23.17mn on more-than-quadrupled transactions to 328.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.05mn stocks and value almost tripled to QR70.87mn on more-than-doubled deals to 1,134.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 10% expansion in trade volume to 1.67mn shares, 9% in value to QR71.08mn and 40% in transactions to 1,038.
Although the telecom sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.4mn equities, value soared 62% to QR10.35mn and deals by 36% to 319.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 54% to 0.59mn stocks but value surged 74% to QR45.1mn. Transactions shrank 11% to 591.
The insurance sector reported a 52% plunge in trade volume to 0.11mn equities but on a 46% expansion in value to QR7.32mn and 35% in deals to 73.
The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 46% to 1.8mn equities and value by 30% to QR75.7mn whereas transactions were up 14% to 1,416.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.