Local retail investors’ bearish grip coupled with increased net profit-booking by domestic institutions led the Qatar Stock Exchange to fall for the second day on Monday by another 18 points.
Selling was seen stronger, especially in the small cap segments, as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.17% to 10,234.36 points.
Consumer goods, telecom, industrials and real estate stocks witnessed the maximum selling in the bourse, which is down 1.87% year-to-date.
The lower buying interests of Gulf institutions also abetted the overall bearish run in the market, where trading turnover and volumes were on the rise.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen declining faster than the other indices in the market, where banking, industrials and consumer goods stocks together constituted more than 71% of the total trading volume.
"The market has lost its upward momentum due to the continuous difficulties to surpass the horizontal line at 10,500 point, knowing that the bulls are required to show some buying activity above there to alleviate the downside risk and to confirm another leg up towards the resistance area at 10,900 points-11,000 points," Kamco said.
Market capitalisation shed 0.33%, or about QR2bn, to QR546.92bn with small, micro, mid and large cap equities dropping 3.27%, 0.61%, 0.4% and 0.08% respectively.
The Total Return Index fell 0.17% to 16,492.58 points, the All Share Index by 0.44% to 2,843.21 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.17% to 3,997.2 points.
Consumer goods stocks shrank 1.19%, followed by telecom (1.13%), industrials (1.11%), realty (0.34%), transport (0.11%) and banks and financial services (0.04%); while insurance was up 0.09%.
About 74% of the stocks were in the red with major shakers being Qatari Investors Group, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, QIIB, Islamic Holding Group, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Barwa, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Commercial Bank, Alijarah Holding and Islamic Holding Group.
However, QNB, Aamal Company, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Widam Food and Al Khaleej Takaful were seen bucking the trend.
Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR9.44mn compared with net buyers of QR1.2mn on April 3.
Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking increased to QR31.24mn against QR15.95mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net buying weakened to QR8.69mn compared to QR14.6mn on Sunday.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened considerably to QR29.78mn against QR9.05mn on April 3.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR3.74mn compared with net sellers of QR6.35mn the previous day.
The GCC individual investors net profit-booking shrank to QR1.53mn against QR2.47mn on Sunday.
Total trade volume rose 9% to 7.82mn shares, value by 8% to QR311.51mn and deals by 17% to 5,252.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew 25-fold to 0.25mn equities and value by almost 10-fold to QR10.08mn on more-than-quadrupled transactions to 153.
The transport sector saw a 55% surge in trade volume to 0.59mn stocks, 17% in value to QR21.61mn and 14% in deals to 413.
The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 55% to 1.95mn shares, value by 48% to QR110.13mn and transactions by 77% to 1,607.
The consumer goods sector reported a 44% expansion in trade volume to 1.56mn equities, 28% in value to QR58.34mn and 60% in deals to 1,089.
However, the telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 32% to 0.49mn stocks, value by 51% to QR12.82mn and transactions by 41% to 469.
The banks and financial services sector saw a 26% plunge in trade volume to 2.05mn shares, 21% in value to QR77.66mn and 14% in deals to 1,052.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was down 1% to 0.95mn equities, value by 10% to QR20.87mn and transactions by 5% to 469.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.