Foreign institutions’ robust buying overruled strong selling among local retail investors and institutions that the Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday crossed the 9,900 mark.
Buying was seen intense especially in the telecom, real estate and industrials counters as the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 0.54% for the fourth consecutive day to 9,941.42 points on increasing trading turnover and volumes.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster than the conventional ones in the market, which is however down 4.68% year-to-date.
The weakened net selling by Gulf institutions also helped maintain bullish momentum in the bourse, where banking, realty and industrials stocks together constituted more than 77% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation rose 0.43% or more than QR2bn to QR535.09bn with mid, micro, small and large cap equities gaining 0.84%, 0.42%, 0.38% and 0.1% respectively.
The Total Return Index rose 0.54% to 16,084.56 points, All Share Index by 0.45% to 2,778.76 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.86% to 3,938.21 points.
Telecom stocks surged 1.72%, real estate (1.02%), industrials (0.74%), transport (0.49%), consumer goods (0.48%) and insurance (0.34%); while banks and financial services fell 0.13%.
About 69% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Barwa, United Development Company, Ezdan, Nakilat, Doha Bank, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Salam International Investment, Qatari Investors Group and Industries Qatar; even as Mazaya Qatar, Commercial Bank and Islamic Holding Group bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased considerably to QR73.63mn compared to QR9.15mn on May 11.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling weakened to QR10.06mn against QR16.05mn on Wednesday.
The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking fell to QR1.13mn compared to QR2.49mn the previous day.
However, domestic institutions’ net selling rose perceptibly to QR46.36mn against QR12.27mn on May 11.
Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR8.14mn compared with net buyers of QR14.28mn on Wednesday.
Non-Qatari individual investors were also net profit takers to the extent of QR7.94mn against net buyers of QR7.38mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 17% to 10.29mn shares, value by 10% to QR330.9mn and deals by less than 1% to 5,330.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.07mn equities, value soared 76% to QR21.09mn and transactions by 35% to 616.
There was 65% surge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 2.25mn stocks, 34% in value to QR93.05mn and 40% in deals to 1,338.
The real estate sector’s trade volume expanded 22% to 2.43mn shares and value by 15% to QR47.71mn, while transactions fell 21% to 823.
However, the market witnessed 10% decline in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.09mn equities but on 2% rise in value to QR6.7mn. Deals shrank 33% to 104.
The transport sector’s trade volume declined 9% to 0.43mn stocks and value by 44% to QR12.71mn, while transactions were up 12% to 351.
The banks and financial services sector saw 9% fall in trade volume to 3.28mn shares but value gained 10% to QR97.49mn. Deals fell 16% to 1,350.
The consumer goods sector reported 4% decline in trade volume to 0.74mn equities, 12% in value to QR52.14mn and 5% in transactions to 748.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.