Qatar Stock Exchange opened the week rather on a flat note; although gainers outnumbered losers by a narrow margin.

Six of the seven sectors witnessed profit booking to drive the 20-stock Qatar Index down for the third consecutive session but by a mere 0.04%. The market’s year-to-date gains have been contained at meager 0.04%.

Foreign institutions’ buying support was seen weakening but there was also reduced selling pressure from Qatari as well as Gulf retail investors and domestic institutions in the bourse, where capitalisation was also on a flat course.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline in the market, where Islamic stocks declined relatively slower than the conventional ones.

Non-Qatari individual investors and Gulf institutions turned net sellers in the bourse, where banking, industrials and telecom sectors together constituted about 91% of the total volume.

Market capitalisation rose by mere QR2mn to QR562.57bn mainly on 0.02% rise in large cap equities; while mid and microcaps fell 0.14% and 0.12% respectively.

The Total Return Index fell 0.04% to 16,881.44 points, All Share Index by 0.04% to 2,878.5 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.02% to 3,878.16 points.

Insurance equities saw their prices decline 0.46%, transport (0.39%), real estate (0.18%), industrials (0.16%), banks and financial services (0.16%), and consumer goods (0.1%); whereas telecom gained 0.37%.

Major losers included Qatar Islamic Bank, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar Insurance, Barwa, Milaha, Nakilat and United Development Company; even as Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Industries Qatar, Mazaya Qatar, Commercial Bank and Qatari Investors Group saw their stocks make modest gains.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying weakened considerably to QR75.07mn compared to QR103.51mn the previous trading day.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR3.43mn against net buyers of QR0.22mn on October 20.

Non-Qatari individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR0.77mn compared with net buyers of QR0.54mn last Thursday.

However, domestic institutions’ net selling weakened perceptibly to QR60.32mn against QR88.15mn the previous trading day.

Local retail investors’ net selling also declined to QR9.29mn compared to QR13.96mn on October 20.

The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking fell to QR1.27mn against QR2.14mn last Thursday.

Total trade volume fell 2% to 5.1mn shares, value by 22% to QR173.89mn and deals by 35% to 1,620.

There was 96% plunge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.03mn equities, 96% in value to QR2.45mn and 71% in transactions to 93.

The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 80% to 0.01mn stocks, value by 82% to QR0.62mn and deals by 75% to 24.

The transport sector reported 73% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.08mn shares, 82% in value to QR3.03mn and 63% in transactions to 103.

The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 67% to 0.36mn equities, value by 71% to QR7.257mn and deals by 35% to 226.

The banks and financial services sector saw 20% decline in trade volume to 1.69mn stocks, 32% in value to QR64.33mn and 30% in transactions to 650.

However, the industrials sector’s trade volume grew more than five-fold to 1.62mn shares and value by more than six-fold to QR80.89mn on 21% jump in deals to 382.

The telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.31mn equities and value soared 84% to QR15.33mn; while transactions shrank 27% to 142.

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