(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Increased net selling by foreign institutions led the Qatar Stock Exchange on Sunday open the week on a weak note and its key index shed 35 points to remain under the 12,000 mark.
Profit booking € especially at the insurance, realty and industrials counters € dragged the 20-stock Qatar Index 0.3% to 11,909.17 points as trade volumes were also on the decline.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was, however, seen flat against declines in the other indices in the market, which is down 3.07% year-to-date.
Nevertheless, the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) individual investors were seen bullish and there was increased buying interests among local retail investors and domestic institutions in the bourse, where trading was largely skewed towards the real estate, banking and industrials sectors, whose stocks together constituted about 77% of the overall trading volume.
Market capitalisation shed 0.2%, or more than QR1bn, to QR632.63bn with micro and small cap equities losing 0.55% and 0.51%; while small and large caps rose 0.52% and 0.02% respectively.
The Total Return Index fell 0.3% to 18,511.09 points and the All Share Index by 0.22% to 3,193.1 points, even as the Al Rayan Islamic Index was unchanged at 4,678.06 points.
Insurance stocks tanked 1.33%, followed by real estate (0.73%), industrials (0.38%) and telecom (0.07%); while consumer goods gained 0.44%, followed by transport (0.15%) and banks and financial services (0.11%).
Major losers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank and Alijarah Holding; whereas Ooredoo, Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank, United Development Company, Al Meera and Islamic Holding Group bucked the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions' net profit-booking strengthened to QR24.54mn compared to QR7.3mn on July 23.
However, local retail investors' net buying increased to QR10.01mn against QR6.79mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions' net buying enhanced to QR12.54mn compared to QR6.17mn last Thursday.
The GCC individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR2.77mn against net sellers of QR0.91mn on July 23.
The GCC institutions' net profit-booking weakened to QR0.84mn compared to QR3.53mn the previous day.
Total trade volume was down 4% to 3.48mn shares and value by 4% to QR167.88mn while deals rose 70% to 5,617.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 42% plunge in trade volume to 0.73mn equities and 33% in value to QR48.78mn but on a 32% expansion in transactions to 1,405.
The telecom sector's trade volume tanked 17% to QR0.2mn stocks, value by 36% to QR4.39mn and deals by 5% to 181.
There was a 2% fall in the real estate sector's trade volume to 1.23mn shares and 15% in value to QR26.36mn but on a 34% increase in transactions to 864.
The transport sector's trade volume more than doubled to 0.11mn equities and value more than tripled to QR4.87mn on more-than-doubled deals to 191.
The consumer goods sector saw a 79% surge in trade volume to 0.34mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR38.65mn and transactions more than tripled to 1,401.
The industrials sector's trade volume soared 27% to 0.71mn shares but value was down 7% to QR36.49mn. Deals gained 45% to 1,187.
The insurance sector's trade volume grew 15% to 0.15mn equities, while value fell 21% to QR8.35mn. Transactions, however, more than tripled to 388.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.