Institutional investors’ buying interests on Monday extended the bullish spell in the Qatar Stock Exchange for the second straight session and its key index inched near the 9,700 level.
A higher than average buying in the consumer goods, industrials, realty and banks led the 20-stock gain 0.71% to 9,638.95 points amidst fall in trade turnover and volumes as Ramadan started.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster than the conventional ones in the market, which is down 7.58% year-to-date.
However, local retail investors were increasingly net profit takers and Gulf institutions turned bearish in the bourse, where banking and real estate stocks together constituted about 59% of the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation rose 0.57% or more than QR3bn to QR522.23bn as mid, small and large cap stocks gained 1.2%, 0.82% and 0.55% respectively; while microcaps fell 0.6%.
The Total Return Index gained 0.71% to 15,595.18 points, All Share Index by 0.71% to 2,696.4 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.87% to 3,750.3 points.
Consumer goods equities surged 1.08%, industrials (0.98%), realty (0.95%), banks and financial services (0.86%) and telecom (0.44%); whereas transport and insurance declined 0.6% and 0.35% respectively.
About 66% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ezdan, United Development Company, Barwa, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Vodafone Qatar and Ooredoo; even as Nakilat and Qatari Investors Group bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased to QR29.39mn compared to QR12.07mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR4.03mn against net sellers of QR5.3mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR2.21mn compared to QR3.02mn on June 5.
However, local retail investors’ net selling strengthened to QR25.06mn against QR12.04mn the previous day.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net buyers to the extent of QR4.61mn compared with net buyers of QR9.42mn on Sunday.
The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking increased to QR1.55mn against QR1.17mn on June 5.
Total trade volume fell 36% to 3.06mn shares and value by 11% to QR142.4mn, while deals rose 10% to 2,178.
The telecom sector reported 59% plunge in trade volume to 0.36mn equities and 16% in value to QR10.21mn but on 8% jump in transactions to 251.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 57% to 0.21mn stocks, value by 25% to QR15.97mn and deals by 9% to 296.
The banks and financial services sector saw 52% shrinkage in trade volume to 1.09mn shares, 34% in value to QR60.78mn and 8% in transactions to 578.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume soared 50% to 0.12mn equities, value by 62% to QR4.04mn and deals by 90% to 131.
The industrials sector witnessed 36% surge in trade volume to 0.38mn stocks to more than double value to QR26.07mn on 38% expansion in transactions to 454.
The insurance sector’s trade volume shot up 29% to 0.18mn shares, value by 20% to QR11.93mn and deals by 6% to 89.
The market witnessed 11% increase in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 0.71mn equities, 13% in value to QR13.41mn and 17% in transactions to 379.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.