Domestic institutions' hunt for stocks yesterday lifted the Qatar Exchange for the sixth consecutive session with its key index inching near the 10,500 mark.
Real estate, transport and consumer goods particularly came under severe buying pressure, which led to the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) gain 0.73% to 10,359.41 points.
About 71% of the traded stocks witnessed appreciation and the index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks outperformed the key benchmarks.
The market, which is up 23.93% year-to-date, has been on the winning steak as investors await the full-year results and the appurtenant dividend distribution.
Faster gains in volumes, especially in the transport and realty stocks, helped increase the overall market liquidity. Both the counters also exhibited strong outlook towards immediate future.
Major movers included Qatari Investors Group, Barwa, Nakilat, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar, Milaha and Industries Qatar; even as Gulf International Services and Qatar Islamic Bank bucked the trend.
The 20-stock Total Return Index gained 0.73% to 14,801.23 points, All Share Index (with wider constituents) by 0.67% to 2,582.39 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.38% to 2,985.84 points. All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Real estate stocks appreciated the maximum of 3.24%, transport (1.82%), consumer goods (1.13%), industrials (0.83%), banks and financial services (0.17%) and insurance (0.1%); while telecom was down 0.09%.
Market capitalisation rose 0.53% or about QR3bn to QR556.45bn. Small caps equities were seen to gain more than 2% and mid caps by more than 1%. Micro and large caps rose only marginally.
Domestic institutions turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of QR9.1mn compared with net sellers of QR36.28mn on Sunday.
Foreign institutions continued to be bullish with their net buying at QR46.21mn against QR41.99mn the previous day.
Qatari individual investors were increasingly into profit booking as their net selling surged to QR41.02mn compared to QR9.91mn on Sunday.
Non-Qatari individuals turned bearish that they were net sellers to the tune of QR14.23mn against net buyers of QR4.2mn the previous day.
Total trading volume rose 38% to 19.65mn stocks, value by 28% to QR640.97mn and transactions by 8% to 7,986.
The transport sector's trading volume almost tripled to 2.59mn shares and value more than doubled to QR57.8mn on a 53% jump in deals to 884.
There was a 62% surge in real estate sector's trading volume to 7.58mn stocks and 80% in value to QR195.04mn but on a 79% decline in transactions to 330.
The industrials sector's trading volume soared 21% to 2.93mn shares, while value was down less than 1% to QR149.87mn and transactions by 10% to 1,673.
The market witnessed a 13% gain in telecom sector's trading volume to 1.49mn stocks whereas value fell less than 1% to QR18.2mn and deals by 22% to 330.
The banks and financial services sector's trading volume was up 5% to 3.88mn equities and value by 8% to QR165.39mn but transactions were down 6% to 1,908.
Although the trading volume of consumer goods sector was flat at 0.92mn shares, value rose 33% to QR51.87mn. Deals fell 8% to 760.
However, the insurance sector witnessed a 25% decline in trading volume to 0.06mn equities, 42% in value to QR2.79mn and 6% in transactions to 103.
In the debt market, there was no trading of bonds and treasury bills.
© Gulf Times 2013
