Qatar Stock Exchange gained for the second day on Thursday, albeit at lower levels, to stay above the 9,700 levels, mainly lifted by consumer goods, banking and industrials stocks.

The Gulf institutions and local retail investors turned net buyers to drive the 20-stock up 0.11% to 9,716.48 points on increasing trading turnover and volumes.

The continued bullish momentum is rather reflective of the rebound in the global energy market where oil prices have crossed $50 a barrel for the first time in nearly seven months.

However, domestic institutions turned net sellers and there was lower buying support from their foreign counterparts in the market, which is down 6.84% year-to-date.

Islamic stocks were seen declining vis-à-vis gains in the conventional ones in the bourse, where industrials and banking stocks together constituted more than 63% of the total trading volume.

Market capitalisation rose 0.84% or more than QR4bn to QR526.71bn with large, mid and small cap equities gaining 0.45%, 0.14% and 0.13% respectively; while microcaps fell 0.22%.

The Total Return Index was up 0.11% to 15,720.62 points and All Share Index by 0.19% to 2,719.95 points but Al Rayan Islamic Index was down 0.08% to 3,809.38 points.

Consumer goods stocks gained 1.01%, banks and financial services (0.48%), industrials (0.38%) and transport (0.04%); whereas telecom fell 0.66%, realty (0.6%) and insurance (0.05%).

Major movers included QNB, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Woqod and Aamal Holding; even as Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Doha Bank, Alijarah Holding, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Widam Food and Qatari Investors Group bucked the trend.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR8.19mn against net sellers of QR1.43mn on Wednesday.

Local retail investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR0.28mn compared with net sellers of QR16.25mn on May 25.

The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR0.46mn against QR1.63mn the previous day.

However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR10.1mn compared with net buyers of QR4.39mn on Wednesday.

Non-Qatari individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR3.19mn against net buyers of QR0.14mn on May 25.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying declined perceptibly to QR5.24mn compared to QR14.94mn the previous day.

Total trade volume rose 14% to 4.73mn shares, value by 30% to QR185.27mn and deals by 9% to 3,384.

The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.1mn equities and value almost doubled to QR86.97mn on 41% jump in transactions to 1,041.

There was 50% surge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.12mn stocks, 56% in value to QR8.09mn and 18% in deals to 120.

The transport sector’s trade volume soared 29% to 0.27mn shares, value by 28% to QR7.68mn and transactions by 77% to 216.

The market witnessed 24% expansion in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.42mn equities, 50% in value to QR17.88mn and 23% in deals to 642.

However, the real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 32% to 0.55mn stocks, value by 32% to QR11.53mn and transactions by 12% to 359.

The consumer goods sector saw 30% plunge in trade volume to 0.39mn shares but on 14% increase in value to QR18.14mn. Deals shrank 13% to 293.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume tanked 22% to 0.88mn equities, value by 17% to QR34.99mn and transactions by 20% to 713.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.