(MENAFN - Gulf Times) Local retail investors' profit-booking was dampened by foreign institution's buying interests yesterday the Qatar Exchange gained for the third day and its key index broke the 8,300 resistance level amid rising volumes.
Domestic institutions were seen considerably reducing their exposure as the 20-stock benchmark rose 0.82% or 68 points to 8,352.60 points.
The market is, however, down 3.79% year-to-date.
Doha Bank, Industries Qatar, Commercialbank (Cb), Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Islamic Bank and Barwa were among the prime gainers yesterday.
The industry index gained the maximum of 1.14%, followed by banks (0.86%) and services (0.67%), while insurance was unchanged.
Market capitalisation rose 0.72% or more than QR3bn to QR437.37bn with micro, large and mid cap equities notably gaining 2.12%, 0.81% and 0.80% respectively.
Of the 42 stocks, 28 advanced, while only six declined, five were unchanged and three were not traded.
Foreign institutions turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 8.21% against net sellers of 3.23% the previous day.
A much higher 30.24% of them were into buying compared to 18.93% on Monday while a marginally lower 22.03% were into selling against 22.16%.
Domestic institutions were increasingly bearish as their net selling rose to 0.89% from 0.41% the previous day.
A much lower 18.37% of them bought equities against 31.52% on Monday and a much lower 19.26% of them sold compared to 31.93%.
Qatari individual investors turned bearish as they were net sellers to the tune of 6.57% against net buyers of 3.20% the previous day.
A higher 42.60% of them purchased equities compared to 38.32% on Monday but a much higher 49.17% sold against 35.12%.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned profit-takers as they were net sellers to the extent of 0.74% compared with net buyers of 0.44% the previous day.
A lower 8.79% of them were into buying against 11.23% on Monday and a lower 9.53% were into offloading compared to 10.79%.
Total trading volume more than doubled to 5.39mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR244.09mn on a 58% jump in deals to 3,368.
The industrial sector's trading volume almost tripled to 0.59mn shares and value more than tripled to QR47.74mn as transactions more than doubled to 590.
Banks' trading volume and value both more than doubled to 3.20mn equities and QR152.26mn respectively on a 53% gain in deals to 1,605.
The insurance sector's trading volume doubled to 0.59mn shares and value more than doubled to QR1.48mn on a 63% surge in transactions to 26.
The services sector's trading volume expanded 90% to 1.58mn shares, value by 42% to QR42.61mn and deals by 49% to 1,147.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Rayan (1.43mn shares); Doha Bank (1.07mn); Barwa (254,376); Doha Bank (184,298); Mazaya Qatar (136,727) and Cb (116,710).
Gulf bourses mixed; ENBD slumps
Dubai-listed Emirates NBD's shares slumped to a 25-week low yesterday after saying it will take over struggling Islamic lender Dubai Bank on orders by Dubai's ruler, while Gulf markets were mixed in muted trade.
ENBD fell 1.6% to its lowest close since April 20.
"We need further information but it will definitely put some
pressure on financial for Emirates NBD," said Samer al-Jaouni, General Manager of Middle East Financial Brokerage.
"Dubai Bank accumulated a lot of non-performing loans. I couldn't see advantages out of this acquisition, which is most likely a bailout," he added.
Dubai's index slipped 0.1% to one point away from last week's seven month low.
Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi's benchmark slipped 0.2% to 2,494 points; Kuwait's measure advanced 0.2% to 5,859 points; Saudi Arabia's index declined 0.3% to 6,118 points; Oman's index fell 0.1% to 5,561 points and Bahrain's measure climbed 0.2% to 1,156 points.
In Kuwait, logistics firm Agility fell from Sunday's four-month high after denying reports that it had won a military contract worth up to 700mn.
Its shares, down 3.9%, resumed trading yesterday after a one-day suspension. The bourse halted trading in Agility after it rallying four straight sessions on rumours of a military contract.
Elsewhere, Egypt's benchmark index recouped some of Monday's losses, pushed higher by Citadel Capital.
Citadel jumped 6.3% as a foreign buyer bought more than 5mn shares in the private equity firm, traders said.
Abu Dhabi's property stocks weighed on the benchmark with Aldar Properties down 1.8%.
