Qatar- Banking, transport, realty drags QSE below 9,900 mark

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Qatar stock exchange was back in the negative terrain with its key index losing 36 points to settle below the 9,900 mark, mainly dragged by banking, transport and real estate stocks.

The Gulf institutions' net buying substantially weakened and Gulf as well as non-Qatari individual investors turned bearish as the 20-stock Qatar Index fell 0.36% to 9,892.32 points.

However, there was increased buying from local retail investors and foreign institutions turned bullish in the bourse, which is down 5.15% year-to-date.

Domestic institutions' net selling weakened in the market, where trading turnover rose amid shrinkage in volumes.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks fell slower than the other indices in the market, where realty, banks and industrials stocks together accounted for about 72% of the total trading volume.

Market capitalisation was down 0.32% or about QR2bn to QR525.69bn with large, small and micro cap equities falling 0.62%, 0.5% and 0.48% respectively; even as mid caps were up 0.03%.

The Total Return Index fell 0.36% to 15,669.85 points, All Share Index by 0.36% to 2,685.95 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.17% to 3,651.49 points.

Banks and financial services stocks shrank 0.67%, transport (0.62%), real estate (0.42%) and industrials (0.26%); whereas insurance gained 0.45%, telecom (0.44%) and consumer goods (0.32%).

About 68% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being QNB, Masraf Al Rayan, al khaliji, Islamic Holding Group, Qatar Electricity and Water, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Doha Insurance, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Barwa, Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat and Gulf Warehousing.

However, Qatar Islamic Bank, QIIB, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo and Al Khaleej Takaful were seen bucking the trend.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions' net buying plummeted to QR2.02mn against QR54.28mn on February 28.

The GCC individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR0.24mn compared with net buyers of QR1.6mn on Sunday.

Non-Qatari individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR1.38mn against net buyers of QR2.16mn the previous day.

However, non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR13.4mn compared with net sellers of QR11.89mn on February 28.

Local retail investors' net buying increased substantially to QR19.59mn against QR5.59mn on Sunday.

Domestic institutions' net profit taking weakened perceptibly to QR33.4mn compared to QR51.69mn the previous day.

Total trade volume fell 17% to 10.07mn shares, while value rose 1% to QR404.8mn and deals by 22% to 6,466.

There was 78% plunge in the consumer goods sector's trade volume to 0.67mn equities, 56% in value to QR28.85mn and 41% in transactions to 471.

The industrials sector's trade volume plummeted 46% to 1.79mn stocks, value by 28% to QR93.21mn and deals by 19% to 1,318.

However, the insurance sector's trade volume grew more than five-fold to 0.29mn shares, value by more than eight-fold to QR17.31mn and transactions by more than five-fold to 309.

The transport sector's trade volume almost tripled to 0.95mn equities, value more than doubled to QR27.14mn and deals almost tripled to 497.

The telecom sector reported 54% surge in trade volume to 0.94mn stocks, more than tripling value to QR31.68mn and more than doubling transactions to 888.

There was 32% expansion in the banks and financial services sector's trade volume to 2.63mn shares, 36% in value to QR151.83mn and 43% in deals to 1,933.

The real estate sector's trade volume was up 2% to 2.79mn equities, whereas value shrank 23% to QR54.78mn. Transactions gained 16% to 1,050.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.