The Qatar Exchange weakened yesterday after two days of bullish spell, mainly on selling pressure from both non-Qatari individual and institutional investors; even as the key index stood above 9,000 points.
Industrials, realty, transport and banking counters notably witnessed profit booking pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) fell 0.3% to 9,036.95 points.
Local retail investors, however, had buying interests in the market, which is up 8.11% year-to-date (YTD) but still below Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait bourses, which returned double-digit gains to investors.
Major losers included Industries Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, United Development Company (UDC), Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat and QNB; even as Gulf International Services and Ooredoo bucked the trend.
The 20-stock Total Return Index also fell 0.3% to 12,911.73 points, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.17% to 2,299.15 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.21% to 2,743.23 points. All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Under the All Share Index category, the industrials index shrank 0.58%, real estate (0.33%), transport (0.32%), banks and financial services (0.3%) and consumer goods (0.14%); while that of insurance surged 3.3% and telecom (0.54%).
Transport, industrials, telecom, consumer goods, insurance, banks and realty sectors have gained YTD 20.77%, 18.81%, 18.56%, 17.99%, 15.30%, 9.61%, and 9.5% respectively.
Market capitalisation was down 0.29% or more than QR1bn to QR501.13bn with large and mid cap equities notably losing 0.45% and 0.4%; even as micro and small caps rose 1.55% and 0.31% respectively.
Small, mid and large cap equities have gained YTD 10.42%, 9.84% and 7.23% respectively; while micro caps fell 1.49%.
Of the 42 stocks, 17 advanced, while 19 declined, four were unchanged and two were not traded.
Foreign institutions turned net sellers to the tune of 0.23% or QR0.92mn. A higher 17.30% of them bought equities against 15.42% the previous day and relatively a much higher 17.53% offloaded compared to 11.19%.
Non-Qatari individual investors' net selling rose to 3.64% or QR14.57mn. A higher 15.05% of them bought equities against 14.01% on Monday and a higher 18.69% sold compared to 16.01%.
Qatari individual investors' net profit booking fell to 3.63% or QR14.53mn. A higher 43.19% of them purchased equities against 41.55% the previous day whereas a lower 46.82% sold compared to 49.31%.
Domestic institutions' net buying rose to 7.49% or QR29.97mn. A lower 24.45% of them were into buying against 29.01% on Monday and a lower 16.96% of them into selling compared to 23.49%. Total trading volume fell 10% to 12.46mn shares, value by 12% to QR400.16mn and deals by 6% to 5,996.
The real estate sector's trading volume plummeted 50% to 3.27mn shares, value by 46% to QR71.19mn and transactions by 39% to 1,130.
The industrials sector's trading volume plunged 16% to 1.08mn shares, value by 24% to QR74.49mn and deals by 8% to 1,146.
The transport sector's trading volume tanked 7% to 1.54mn shares, value by less than 1% to QR37.18mn and transactions by 10% to 566.
However, the telecom sector's trading volume almost tripled to 1.32mn shares, value surged 99% to QR18.33mn and deals by 46% to 290.
The insurance sector's trading volume shot up 77% to 0.46mn shares and value by 91% to QR24.06mn on more than doubled transactions to 366.
The banks and financial services sector's trading volume soared 35% to 3.78mn shares, value by 14% to QR132.56mn and deals by 22% to 1,946.
The consumer goods and services sector's trading volume expanded 19% to 1mn shares, while value shrank 18% to QR42.35mn and transactions by 21% to 552.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were UDC (1.55mn shares); Nakilat (1.33mn); Vodafone Qatar (1.27mn); Barwa (1.25mn) and Masraf Al Rayan (953,658).
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills.
© Gulf Times 2013
