QSE extends gains to top 12,200 level with ease

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Substantially lower selling pressure from local retail investors on Monday drove the Qatar Stock Exchange up for the third consecutive session and its key index surpassed the 12,200 level with ease.

Banking, real estate and transport stocks were seen the most sought after as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) rose 0.76% to 12,235.92 points with trade volumes also on an expansion mode.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the bourse, which is, however, down 0.41% year-to-date.

However, selling pressure was visible among domestic and foreign institutions in the market, where realty, banking and industrials stocks together cornered about 73% of the total trading volume.

Market capitalisation expanded 0.41%, or about QR3bn, to QR663.48bn with large and mid cap equities gaining 0.95% and 0.42% respectively; even as micro caps were down by a marginal 0.01%.

The Total Return Index rose 0.76% to 18,712.21 points, the All Share Index by 0.62% to 3,227.62 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.05% to 4,407.27 points.

Banks and financial services stocks gained 1.26%, followed by real estate (0.81%), transport (0.45%), insurance (0.09%) and consumer goods (0.08%); while industrials and telecom fell 0.12% and 0.07% respectively.

More than 63% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Islamic Bank, Alijarah Holding, Barwa, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Nakilat, Gulf International Services and Vodafone Qatar, while Industries Qatar, Salam International Investment, Ooredoo and Al Khaleej Takaful bucked the trend.


Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR24.73mn against net sellers of QR13.84mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors' net selling sunk to QR7.71mn compared to QR11.35mn on Sunday.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR11.8mn against net buyers of QR10.14mn on Sunday.
Foreign institutions were also net profit-takers to the tune of QR5.18mn compared with net buyers of QR15.07mn the previous day.
Total trade volume rose 90% to 10.15mn shares, value by 89% to QR475.63mn and transactions by 36% to 5,271.
The consumer goods sector's trade volume more than tripled to 0.78mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR34.73mn on a 65% jump in deals to 453.
The banks and financial services sector's trade volume almost tripled to 2.28mn equities and value more than doubled to QR121.93mn on almost-tripled-transactions to 1,374.
The telecom sector's trade volume more than doubled to 1.14mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR26.41mn on a 19% rise in deals to 637.
The industrials sector saw its trade volume soar 77% to 1.24mn stocks and value by 82% to QR98.78mn, while transactions were down 1% to 1,020.
The market saw a 71% expansion in the insurance sector's trade volume to 0.41mn equities and value by 66% to QR23.88mn on almost-tripled-deals to 289.
The transport sector's trade volume rose 53% to 0.46mn shares but value fell 13% to QR16.5mn. Transactions gained 29% to 239.
There was a 71% surge in the real estate's trade volume to 3.85mn stocks, 75% in value to QR153.39mn and 1% in deals to 1,259.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.