Reversing a four-day bearish trend, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Tuesday gained a robust 171 points to surpass the 10,300 mark, mainly on sustained buying interests from foreign and Gulf institutions.
Stronger buying - especially at the real estate and telecom counters - helped the 20-stock Qatar Index surge 1.69% to 10,316.67 points.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the market, which is however down 1.69% year-to-date.
However, domestic institutions and non-Qatari individual investors turned bearish in the bourse, where turnover and volumes were on the rise.
Heavy rush for small and large-cap stocks was seen in the market, where realty, banking and industrials stocks together accounted for more than 82% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation gained 1.58%, or about QR9bn, to QR551.34bn with small, large, mid and micro-cap equities gaining 1.77%, 1.56%, 0.98% and 0.16% respectively.
The Total Return Index soared 1.73% to 16,599.58 points, the All Share Index by 1.63% to 2,864.29 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.83% to 4,042.32 points.
Real estate stocks appreciated 3.52%, followed by telecom (2.98%), industrials (1.39%), banks and financial services (1.24%), transport (1.19%) and insurance (0.56%); while consumer goods were down 0.05%.
More than 71% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being QNB, Barwa, Ezdan, Ooredoo, Nakilat, Milaha, Vodafone Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services and Qatar Oman Investment; whereas Mazaya Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Al Meera and Islamic Holding Group bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened considerably to QR51.5mn compared to QR2.26mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net buying also increased to QR14.66mn against QR4.92mn on Monday.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR29.2mn compared with net buyers of QR3.36mn on March 28.
Non-Qatari individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR4.98mn against net buyers of QR4.66mn the previous day.
Local retail investors’ net selling strengthened to QR29.04mn compared to QR15.16mn on Monday.
The GCC individual investors net profit-booking increased to QR2.9mn against QR0.07mn on March 28.
Total trade volume rose 5% to 10.68mn shares, value by 6% to QR391.96mn and deals by 23% to 5,664.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.78mn equities and value more than tripled to QR101.41mn on more-than-tripled transactions to 1,462.
The insurance sector reported a 57% surge in trade volume to 0.11mn stocks, 88% in value to QR7.16mn and 62% in deals to 131.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume expanded 15% to 3.01mn shares, value by 13% to QR135.31mn and transactions by 52% to 1,700.
However, there was a 61% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.46mn equities, 62% in value to QR22.23mn and 40% in deals to 392.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 40% to 0.89mn stocks, value by 31% to QR21.94mn and transactions by 16% to 607.
The market witnessed a 28% shrinkage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 1.97mn shares, 15% in value to QR83.63mn and 14% in deals to 990.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 15% to 0.46mn equities, value by 24% to QR20.28mn and transactions by 8% to 382.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.