Foreign Funds’ Sell-Off Drags QSE Below 11,100 Levels; M-Cap Erodes QR2.02bn

The foreign funds Wednesday hurriedly squared off their position in the Qatar Stock Exchange, which closed in the negative for the third straight session.

The transport, insurance, industrials, consumer goods and real estate counters witnessed higher than average selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed more than 30 points or 0.27% to 11,077.07 points, although it touched an intraday high of 11,119 points.

The Arab individuals were increasingly net profit takers in the main market, whose year-to-date gains truncated further to 4.79%.

About 79% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main bourse, whose capitalisation melted QR2.02bn or 0.37% to QR661.33bn, mainly on small and microcap segments.

The foreign retail investors were seen increasingly net sellers in the main market, which saw as many as 2,642 exchange traded funds (sponsored by AlRayan Bank and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.02mn trade across six deals.

However, the domestic funds were increasingly bullish in the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the decline.

The Islamic index was seen declining slower than the other indices of the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills.

The local retail investors were increasingly net buyers in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.

The Total Return Index shrank 0.27%, the All Share Index by 0.31% and the All Islamic Index by 0.14% in the main market.

The transport sector index tanked 1.84%, insurance (0.73%), industrials (0.58%), consumer goods and services (0.41%), real estate (0.38%) and banks and financial services (0.1%); while telecom gained 1.24%.

Major shakers in the main market include Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, QLM, Milaha, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing Company, Commercial Bank, Salam International Investment, Qatar Electricity and Water, and Mazaya Qatar. In the juniour bourse, Techno Q saw its shares depreciate in value.

Nevertheless, Ooredoo, QIIB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Ahlibank Qatar and Widam Food were among the gainers in the main market.

The foreign institutions’ net selling expanded substantially to QR35.67mn compared to QR6.14mn the previous day.

The Arab retail investors’ net selling strengthened noticeably to QR8.41mn against QR3.69mn on September 9.

The foreign individuals’ net profit booking increased marginally to QR2.99mn compared to QR2.51mn on Tuesday.

However, the domestic institutions’ net buying grew drastically to QR22.07mn against QR0.64mn the previous day.

The local individual investors’ net buying rose perceptibly to QR18.36mn compared to QR15.44mn on September 9.

The Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR5.78mn against net profit takers of QR3.78mn on Tuesday.

The Gulf individual investors’ net buying increased marginally to QR0.84mn compared to QR0.05mn the previous day.

The Arab institutions were net buyers to the extent of QR0.05mn against no major net exposure for the last seven days.

The main market saw 18% contraction in trade volumes to 101.23mn shares, 10% in value to QR354.14mn and 21% in deals to 19,895.

In the venture market, a total of 0.5mn equities valued at QR1.31mn changed hands across 60 transactions.