Domestic institutions’ buying interest yesterday sustained the bull-run on the Qatar Exchange for the eighth day.

The banking and realty stocks were much sought after as the 20-stock QE Index (based on price data) rose 0.17 to 8,416.46 points. The market is, however, down 4.13% year-to-date.

Total Return Index and All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) also rose 0.20% and 0.17% to 2,024.92 and 11,390.51 points respectively. Both the indices factored in dividend income as well.

Major gainers included QNB, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services (GIS), Barwa, Vodafone Qatar (VFQ), National Leasing and Mawashi; even as Qatar Telecom and Nakilat bucked the trend.

Under the All Share Index category, the index of banks and financial services gained 0.68%, real estate (0.67%) and industrials (0.14%); while the indices of telecom, consumer goods, insurance and transport fell 2.34%, 0.15%, 0.09% and 0.06% respectively.

Market capitalisation, however, fell 0.11% or QR49mn to QR460.65bn on a 0.36% fall in micro cap equities; while small and large caps gained 0.74% and 0.22% respectively.
Of the 42 stocks, 20 advanced, while 16 declined, five were unchanged and one was not traded.

Domestic institutions were increasingly bullish as their net buying soared to 15.52% from 5.09% the previous day. Their net buying was QR37.71mn.

A higher 27.24% of them bought equities compared to 19.14% on Wednesday whereas a lower 11.72% offloaded against 14.05%.

Foreign institutions turned profit takers in that they were net sellers to the tune of 2.70% compared with net buyers of 0.50% the previous day. Their net selling was QR6.56mn.

A much lower 19.32% of them were into buying against 34.17% on Wednesday and a much lower 22.02% of them into selling compared to 33.67%.

Qatari individual investors were increasingly bearish as their net selling soared to 13.11% from 3.49% the previous day. Their net selling amounted to QR31.85mn.
A higher 39.67% of them purchased equities compared to 35.40% on Wednesday but a much higher 52.78% sold against 38.89%.

Non-Qatari retail investors turned marginally bullish in that they were net buyers to the extent of 0.28% compared with net sellers of 2.11% the previous day. Their net buying was QR0.68mn.

A higher 13.76% of them were into buying against 11.28% on Wednesday and a marginally higher 13.48% were into offloading against 13.39%.

Total trading volume soared 53% to 5.92mn equities, value by 38% to QR242.96mn and deals by 42% to 3,737.

The industrials sector’s trading volume more than quadrupled to 1.67mn shares, value rose 85% to QR67.72mn and transactions by 80% to 867.

The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume more than tripled to 0.75mn shares and value also more than tripled to QR36.18mn on more than doubled transactions to 682.

The telecom sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 0.64mn shares, value surged 53% to QR17.47mn and deals by 50% to 382.

The transport sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 0.67mn shares, value gained 57% to QR19.30mn and transactions by 55% to 397.

The insurance sector’s trading volume zoomed 43% to 0.10mn shares, value by 34% to QR4.33mn and deals by 35% to 96.

However, the real estate sector’s trading volume plunged 35% to 0.68mn shares and value by 25% to QR13.28mn while transactions were up 3% to 369.

The banks and financial services sector’s trading volume fell 11% to 1.40mn shares, while value rose 1% to QR84.68mn but deals were down 3% to 944.

Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Qatari Investors Group (971,407 shares); Medicare Group (596,018); VFQ (520,688); Nakilat (465,471) and GIS (462,955).

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