The Qatar Exchange yesterday opened the week on a stronger note, mainly due to robust buying interests from local retail investors.
Higher buying demand, especially for transport and banking equities, led to a sustained bull run for the fifth straight session.
Non-Qatari retail investors' buying interests also helped in the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) gain 0.71% to 10,284.8 points.
About 73% of the traded stocks witnessed appreciation and the index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks outperformed the key benchmarks in the market, which is up 23.04% year-to-date.
The overall market liquidity was on the rise, mainly on faster expansion in volumes in the transport, real estate and banking stocks.
Major movers included QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Industries Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan Real Estate, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat and Milaha; even as Gulf International Services and Qatar Insurance bucked the trend.
The 20-stock Total Return Index gained 0.71% to 14,694.63 points, the All Share Index (with wider constituents) by 0.65% to 2,565.14 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.79% to 2,945.27 points.
All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Transport stocks appreciated 0.93%, followed by banks and financial services (0.86%), industrial (0.66%), realty (0.62%), telecom (0.61%) and consumer goods (0.03%), while insurance shrank 1.15%.
Market capitalisation rose 0.68%, or about QR4bn, to QR553.52bn. Large cap equities gained about 1%, followed by mid cap (0.48%), micro (0.26%) and small (0.21%).
Qatari individual investors' buying interests were visible as the profit-booking pressure weakened. As a result their net selling sunk to QR9.91mn against QR37.39mn the previous trading day.
Non-Qatari individuals turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of QR4.2mn compared with net sellers of QR7.8mn last Thursday.
Foreign institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as their net buying fell to QR41.99mn against QR59.81mn the previous day.
Domestic institutions were increasingly bearish as their net selling surged to QR36.28mn compared to QR14.62mn last Thursday.
Total trading volume rose 45% to 14.25mn stocks, value by 32% to QR500.43mn and transactions by 28% to 7,418.
The transport sector's trading volume more than doubled to 0.96mn and value also more than doubled to QR26.69mn on more-than-doubled deals to 577.
There was a 77% surge in real estate sector's trading volume to 4.88mn stocks, 89% in value to QR108.3mn and 61% in transactions to 1,596.
The banks and financial services sector's trading volume soared 63% to 3.69mn equities, value by 29% to QR153.38mn and deals by 18% to 2,029.
The consumer goods sector saw its trading volume expand 44% to 0.92mn shares, value by 32% to QR38.88mn and transactions by 27% to 830.
The insurance sector witnessed a 14% jump in trading volume to 0.08mn equities, 15% in value to QR4.81mn and 14% in value to 109.
The industrials sector's trading volume was up 10% to 2.43mn shares, value by 12% to QR150.12mn and transactions by 16% to 1,856.
However, the market witnessed a 6% dip in telecom sector's trading volume to 1.49mn stocks, 18% in value to QR18.26mn and 9% in deals to 421.
© Gulf Times 2013
