Qatar shares edge lower despite foreign buy support

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Qatar stock exchange on Sunday witnessed stronger buying interests from foreign institutions, but overall it closed in the negative territory.

Gulf funds continued to be net buyers, but with lesser intensity, as the 20-stock Qatar index fell 0.24% for the second straight session to 8,126.89 points.
There was an across-the-board selling in the market, whose year-to-date losses were seen at 22.13%.
Islamic equities fell faster than other indices in the bourse, whose capitalisation declined 0.37% to QR441.84bn.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase in the market, where the banking sector alone accounted for more than 52% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index shed 0.24% to 13,628.31 points, the All Share Index fell 0.43% to 2,271.46 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.11% to 3,168.24 points.
The consumer goods index shrank 1.25%, followed by realty (1.05%), industrials (0.67%), transport (0.5%), telecom (0.21%), insurance and banks and financial services (0.08% each).
Major gainers include Doha Bank, Commercial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Industries Qatar and Ooredoo; even as QIIB, Alijarah Holding, Qatar First Bank, Qatari Investors Group, Vodafone Qatar, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.
Non-Qatari institutions' net buying increased considerably to QR30.68mn compared to QR10.83mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors' net selling weakened perceptibly to QR1.38mn against QR3.24mn last Thursday.
However, local retail investors' net profit-booking rose substantially to QR20.27mn compared to QR3.26mn on November 2.
Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR11.63mn against net buyers of QR13.6mn the previous day.
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) retail investors were net sellers to the extent of QR0.51mn compared with net buyers of QR0.29mn last Thursday.
GCC institutions' net buying weakened perceptibly to QR3.12mn against QR8.97mn on November 2.
Total trade volume rose 20% to 4.69mn shares, value by 14% to QR128.21mn and deals by 17% to 2,202.
The banks and financial services sector's trade volume more than doubled to 2.44mn equities, value soared 86% to QR77.94mn and transactions by 32% to 941.
There was a 47% surge in the real estate sector's trade volume to 0.81mn stocks, 47% in value to QR10.7mn and 2% in deals to 276.
The telecom sector's trade volume increased 32% to 0.5mn shares, while value declined 29% to QR5.68mn despite 7% higher transactions to 227.
However, the transport sector reported a 64% plunge in trade volume to 0.15mn equities and 82% in value to QR3.68mn but on a 28% expansion in deals to 143.
The industrials sector's trade volume plummeted 55% to 0.65mn stocks and value by 7% to QR23.57mn, whereas transactions gained 19% to 446.
The consumer goods sector saw a 44% shrinkage in trade volume to 0.1mn shares, 40% in value to QR4.98mn and 8% in deals to 135.
Although the insurance sector's trade volume was flat at 0.05mn equities, there was a 14% decline in value to QR1.66mn and 32% in transactions to 34.
In the debt market, there was no trading of government bonds but a total of 10,000 treasury bills valued at QR99.93mn trade across nine deals.

MENAFN0511201700670000ID1096043248