Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday snapped three days of bearish spell to gain 34 points, mainly on the back of sustained buying by Gulf institutions.

Led by telecom, realty, insurance and industrials sectors, the 20-stock rose 0.35% to 9,572.32 points amidst fall in trading turnover and volumes.

The cautiously bullish run in the bourse came amidst report that the global oil market, which was weak in the early part, later traversed in positive trajectory on expectations that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may consider new output ceilings at its meet today.

Islamic stocks were gaining slower than the conventional ones in the market, which is down 8.22% year-to-date.

However, foreign institutions were increasingly net sellers and there was also weakened buying support from their domestic counterparts in the bourse, where banking, real estate and telecom stocks together constituted more than three-fourth of the total trading volume.

Market capitalisation rose 0.37% or about QR2bn to QR519.25bn as small, large and midcap equities gained 0.54%, 0.42% and 0.16% respectively; even as microcaps were marginally down.

The Total Return Index gained 0.35% to 15,487.37 points, All Share Index by 0.35% to 2,682.97 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.31% to 3,748.04 points.

Telecom stocks rose 1.03%, real estate (0.65%), insurance (0.53%), industrials (0.46%), consumer goods (0.31%) and banks and financial services (0.15%); whereas transport fell 0.4%.

Major gainers included Ooredoo, Barwa, United Development Company, Qatar Insurance, Mannai Corporation, Qatari Investors Group, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank and Qatar First Bank; while Gulf International Services, Aamal Company, Mazaya Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Commercial Bank, Nakilat and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices bucked the trend.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net buying increased to QR44.62mn against QR23.69mn on Tuesday.

The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR0.93mn compared to QR14.3mn on May 31.

However, non-Qatari institutions’ net selling strengthened to QR44.01mn compared to QR26.53mn the previous day.

Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.79mn against net buyers of QR6.13mn on Tuesday.

Non-Qatari individual investors were net sellers to the extent of QR2.37mn compared with net buyer of QR4.4mn on May 31.

Domestic institutions’ net buying declined to QR3.46mn against QR6.68mn the previous day.

Total trade volume shrank 52% to 5.2mn shares, value by 52% to QR202.17mn and deals by 46% to 2,820.

There was 84% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.2mn equities, 62% in value to QR12.23mn and 67% in transactions to 146.

The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 73% to 0.64mn stocks, value by 67% to QR41.22mn and deals by 44% to 651.

The real estate sector saw 63% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.75mn shares, 64% in value to QR14.77mn and 65% in transactions to 293.

The telecom sector’s trade volume tanked 56% to 0.71mn equities, value by 65% to QR11.69mn and deals by 60% to 287.

The market witnessed 54% decline in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.23mn stocks, 51% in value to QR15.65mn and 53% in transactions to 164.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume shrank 24% to 0.22mn shares, value by 15% to QR12.57mn and deals by 26% to 230.

The banks and financial services sector reported 9% fall in trade volume to 2.45mn equities, 36% in value to QR94.05mn and 23% in transactions to 1,049.

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