Qatar Stock Exchange on Sunday opened the week weak and its key index fell for the fifth straight session to remain under the 9,800 mark, mainly on selling pressure from foreign and Gulf institutions.
Insurance, transport, real estate and telecom counters witnessed higher net profit booking, leading the 20-stock Qatar Index weaken 0.19% to 9,730.1 points as trading turnover and volumes also declined substantially.
Midcap cap equities largely came under selling pressure in the market, which is down 6.7% year-to-date.
However, there was buying support from domestic institutions and lower selling pressure from local retail investors in the bourse, where banking and industrials stocks together constituted about 59% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation fell 0.23% or more than QR1bn to QR525.57bn with mid, small and microcap equities losing 0.67%, 0.16% and 0.14% respectively; even as large caps were unchanged.
The Total Return Index was down 0.19% to 15,742.65 points, All Share Index by 0.29% to 2,720.2 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.27% to 3,800.27 points.
Insurance stocks shrank 2.12%, transport (0.69%), real estate (0.44%), telecom (0.23%) and banks and financial services (0.17%); whereas industrials and consumer goods gained 0.13% and 0.1% respectively.
Major losers included Industries Qatar, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Qatar First Bank and Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance.
However, QNB, Ooredoo, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Dlala and Qatari Investors Group bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.44mn compared with net buyers of QR17.59mn last Thursday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions also turned net sellers to the extent of QR3.93mn against net buyers of QR0.2mn on May 5.
The GCC individual investors turned net profit takers to the tune of QR0.16mn against net buyers of QR0.45mn the previous trading day.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying weakened to QR2.45mn compared to QR5.05mn last Thursday.
However, domestic institutions turned net buyers to the extent of QR3.96mn against net sellers of QR13.45mn on May 5.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR1.89mn compared to QR9.82mn the previous trading day.
Total trade volume fell 48% to 3.87mn shares, value by 56% to QR112.27mn and deals by 41% to 2,328.
The consumer goods sector saw 85% plunge in trade volume to 0.17mn equities, 86% in value to QR7.58mn and 56% in transactions to 196.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 84% to 0.05mn stocks, value by 87% to QR3.08mn and deals by 32% to 76.
There was 75% shrinkage in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.34mn shares, 81% in value to QR5.88mn and 70% in transactions to 267.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 61% to 0.56mn equities, value by 64% to QR10.33mn and deals by 46% to 337.
The industrials sector reported 20% decline in trade volume to 0.78mn stocks, 30% in value to QR31.57mn and 5% in transactions to 642.
The transport sector’s trade volume shrank 20% to 0.47mn shares, value by 9% to QR14.36mn and deals by 31% to 182.
The market witnessed 5% fall in the banks and financial services sector’s trade volume to 1.5mn equities, 28% in value to QR39.46mn and 30% in transactions to 628.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.