Selling pressure from foreign retail and institutional investors yesterday slightly weakened the Qatar Exchange.
Profit booking, especially in industrials and banking counters, led the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) to close 0.04% lower at 8,934.93 points.
Domestic institutions continued to be net sellers but with lesser vigour in the market, which is, however, up 6.89% year-to-date (YTD).
Major losers included United Development Company (UDC), Industries Qatar, QNB, Commercial Bank, Gulf International Services, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar and Gulf Warehousing; even as Barwa and Nakilat bucked the trend.
The 20-stock Total Return Index also fell 0.04% to 12,765.96 points, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.1% to 2,277.94 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.29% to 2,707.83 points. All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Under the All Share Index category, the industrials index lost 0.35%, banks and financial services (0.22%) and insurance (0.12%); while that of transport rose 0.86%, telecom (0.35%), real estate (0.21%) and consumer goods (0.18%).
Market capitalisation eroded 0.14% or QR71mn to QR500.15bn.
Of the 42 stocks, only 14 advanced, while 19 declined, six were unchanged and three were not traded.
Non-Qatari individual investors' net selling surged to 7.04% or QR26.96mn. A marginally lower 11.26% of them bought equities against 12.59% the previous day whereas a higher 18.3% sold compared to 13.88%.
Foreign institutions' net buying sunk to 4.29% or QR16.43mn. A marginally lower 20.83% of them bought equities against 21.07% on Tuesday while a higher 16.54% offloaded compared to 11.36%. Domestic institutions' net selling fell to 4.93% or QR18.88mn. A marginally higher 23.72% of them were into buying against 22.11% the previous day and a marginally higher 28.65% of them into selling compared to 27.05%.
Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the extent of 7.68% or QR29.41mn. A marginally lower 44.19% of them purchased equities against 44.24% on Tuesday but a much lower 36.51% sold compared to 47.71%.
Total trading volume fell 7% to 10.78mn shares, while value rose 9% to QR383mn but deals were down 3% to 5,018.
The telecom sector's trading volume plummeted 75% to 0.60mn shares, value by 64% to QR11.41mn and transactions by 55% to 198.
The consumer goods and services sector's trading volume plunged 24% to 0.48mn shares, value by 7% to QR41.50mn and deals by 26% to 477.
The real estate sector's trading volume declined 11% to 3.02mn shares, value by 8% to QR62.83mn and transactions by 2% to 1,083.
The insurance sector's trading volume tanked 10% to 0.09mn shares and value by 5% QR4.39mn whereas deals gained 25% to 74.
The banks and financial services sector's trading volume shrank 5% to 2.87mn shares, while value rose 7% to QR132.74mn but transactions fell 19% to 1,367.
However, the transport sector's trading volume more than doubled to 2.86mn shares and value more than doubled to QR58.38mn on more than doubled deals to 836.
The industrials sector's trading volume soared 10% to 0.86mn shares, value by 44% to QR71.76mn and transactions by 15% to 983.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Nakilat (2.60mn shares); UDC (1.54mn); Barwa (1.01mn); Doha Bank (786,043) and Masraf Al Rayan (760,871).
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills.
© Gulf Times 2013
