Bearish spell, albeit at lower levels, was witnessed in Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday, mainly due to selling pressure in the micro, small and midcap equities.
Profit booking in the transport, industrials, real estate and banking counters was to a great extent contained by robust buying in the telecom, insurance and consumer goods that the 20-stock Qatar Index shed a marginal 0.04% to 10,312.88 points.
Gulf institutions turned net sellers and there was reduced buying support from local retail investors in the market, which is down 1.12% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen declining compared to gains in the other indices in the bourse, where turnover and volumes were on the decline.
However, there was increased net buying by foreign institutions and non-Qatari individual investors turned bullish in the market, where banking, realty and industrials stocks together accounted for more than 78% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation was down 0.12% or QR66mn to QR550.68bn with micro, small and midcap equities falling 0.99%, 0.56% and 0.33% respectively; even as large caps were up 0.04%.
The Total Return Index rose 0.12% to 16,619.12 points and All Share Index by 0.04% to 2,865.54 points; while Al Rayan Islamic Index fell 0.3% to 4,030.03 points.
Transport stocks shrank 0.38%, industrials (0.22%), realty (0.2%) and banks and financial services (0.16%); while telecom surged 1.7%, insurance (1.62%) and consumer goods (0.57%).
More than 63% of the stocks were in the red major losers being Gulf Warehousing, QIIB, Dlala, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Qatari Investors Group, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank and QNB; even as Ooredoo, Qatar Insurance, Gulf International Services and Woqod bucked the trend.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR9.08mn against net buyers of QR14.66mn on Tuesday.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking increased to QR31.62mn compared to QR29.04mn on March 29.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR60.6mn against QR51.5mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR3.86mn compared with net sellers of QR4.98mn on Tuesday.
Domestic institutions’ net selling weakened to QR21.03mn against QR29.2mn on March 29.
The GCC individual investors net profit booking fell to QR2.7mn compared to QR2.9mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 25% to 7.99mn shares, value by 18% to QR321.99mn and deals by 7% to 5,240.
There was 44% plunge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 2.13mn equities, 43% in value to QR57.76mn and 42% in transactions to 849.
The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 28% to 1.42mn stocks and value by 3% to QR81.14mn, while deals rose 21% to 1,200.
The insurance sector reported 27% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.08mn shares, 28% in value to QR5.18mn and 4% in transactions to 126.
The telecom sector’s trade volume declined 12% to 0.78mn equities, even as value soared 54% to QR33.76mn and deals by 50% to 910.
The banks and financial services sector saw 10% fall in trade volume to 2.7mn stocks, 23% in value to QR103.88mn and 15% in transactions to 1,446.
The transport sector’s trade volume was down 7% to 0.43mn shares, value by 21% to QR17.56mn and deals by 27% to 288.
Although the consumer goods sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.46mn equities, there was 12% increase in value to QR22.71mn and 10% in transactions to 421.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.