Qatar Stock Exchange continued to be under bullish spell for the second day and its key index inched near the 10,300 mark; mainly lifted by real estate and consumer goods stocks.
Buying interests of Gulf institutions and non-Qatari individual investors largely led the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.64% to 10,297.39 points as global energy markets rebounded on strikes in Kuwait and increased expectations on Chinese demand.
Micro cap equities witnessed higher demand in the market, which is however down 1.27% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining much faster than the other indices in the bourse, where trading turnover and volumes were on the rise.
However, foreign institutions’ net buying substantially weakened and local retail investors turned bearish in the market, where realty, banking and industrials stocks together constituted about 74% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation rose 0.53% or about QR3bn to QR549.39bn with micro, small and midcap equities gained 2.29%, 0.85% and 0.2% respectively; whereas large caps were down 0.28%.
The Total Return Index rose 0.64% to 16,660.49 points, All Share Index by 0.67% to 2,871.6 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.32% to 4,067.51 points.
Real estate stocks shot up 3.76%, consumer goods (1.31%), transport (0.82%), telecom (0.67%) and industrials (0.5%); while insurance fell 1.17% and banks and financial services (0.44%).
More than 63% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Ezdan, Widam Food, Qatari Investors Group, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Aamal Company, Vodafone Qatar, Milaha, Gulf Warehousing, Alijarah Holding, Dlala, Mazaya Qatar and Ooredoo.
However, QNB, Doha Bank, Qatari Islamic Bank, Nakilat, Commercial Bank, Islamic Holding Group and Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance bucked the trend.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR19.96mn against net sellers of QR2.83mn on April 18.
Non-Qatari individual investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR15.24mn compared with net sellers of QR13.93mn on Monday.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened considerably to QR5mn against QR44.02mn the previous day.
Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR10.81mn compared with net buyers of QR2.54mn on April 18.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking increased to QR27.58mn against QR25.56mn on Monday.
The GCC individual investors’ net selling rose to QR1.71mn compared to QR1.57mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 79% to 15.48mn shares, value by 67% to QR476.26mn and deals by 49% to 6,944.
The transport sector’s trade volume almost quadrupled to 1.26mn equities and value grew almost seven-fold to QR77.15mn on more than tripled transactions to 791.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 5.99mn stocks and value also more than doubled to Q107.4mn on 84% rise in deals to 1,627.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.14mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR26.32mn on 86% expansion in transactions to 741.
The market witnessed 48% surge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 1.66mn equities, 82% in value to QR86.43mn and 46% in deals to 941.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume soared 39% to 3.25mn stocks but value was down 3% to QR89.22mn. Transactions gained 18% to 1,584.
The industrials sector saw 11% increase in trade volume to 2.17mn shares, 26% in value to QR88.4mn and 15% in deals to 1,220.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 82% to 0.02mn equities, value by 83% to QR1.34mn and transactions by 57% to 40.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.