(MENAFN - Gulf Times) The Qatar Exchange was almost stable yesterday as the selling pressure from local retail investors was offset by the buying support from domestic institutions.
Although foreign institutions largely kept away from the trading ring, the 20-stock benchmark rose by a marginal 0.06% to 8,440.11 points.
The market is however down 3.79% year-to-date.
Qatar Islamic Bank and Industries Qatar were among the influential gainers; even as United Development Company (UDC) and Masraf Al Rayan bucked the trend.
The indices of banks and industry rose 0.14% and 0.01%; while those of insurance and services fell 0.12% and 0.05% respectively.
Market capitalisation rose 0.36% or about QR2bn to QR438.10bn with small and large cap equities notably gaining 0.67% and 0.24% respectively. Micro caps fell 0.93%.
Of the 42 stocks, 17 advanced, while 18 declined, four were unchanged and three were not traded.
Domestic institutions continued to be bearish but with lesser vigour as their net selling fell to 1.69% from 3.88% the previous trading day.
A higher 27.27% of them bought equities compared to 18.89% last Thursday and a higher 28.96% offloaded against 22.77%.
On the other hand, foreign institutions turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 0.55% compared with net sellers of 7.96% the previous day.
A much lower 14.70% of them were into buying against 26.46% last Thursday and a much lower 14.15% of them into selling compared to 34.42%.
Qatari individual investors' bullish grip weakened as their net buying sunk to 0.12% from 1.31% the previous day.
A marginally higher 45.09% of them purchased equities against 44.70% last Thursday but a much higher 44.97% sold compared to 31.60%.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 1.03% against net sellers of 1.26% the previous day.
A higher 12.95% of them were into buying compared to 9.95% last Thursday although a marginally higher 11.92% were into offloading against 11.21%.
Total trading volumes shrank 26% to 7.41mn equities, value by 46% to QR230.68mn and deals by 19% to 3,517.
The insurance sector's trading volume plummeted 58% to 0.10mn shares, value by 69% to QR5.37mn and transactions by 48% to 72.
The industrial sector's trading volume plunged 39% to 3.31mn shares, value by 52% to QR97.23mn and deals by 18% to 1,299.
Banks' trading volume tanked 28% to 1.88mn shares, value by 58% to QR69.69mn and transactions by 33% to 1,059.
However, the services sector's trading volume rose 18% to 2.13mn shares, value by 31% to QR58.38mn and deals by 3% to 1,087.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were UDC (2.96mn shares); Masraf Al Rayan (1.36mn); Mawashi (765,736); Vodafone Qatar (380,543) and Commercialbank (254,831).
