Gulf Funds Drag QSE 143 Points; M-Cap Erodes QR9.03bn

The Qatar Stock Exchange was back in the negative terrain with its key index plummeting more than 143 points on an across the board selling pressure. The Gulf institutions were seen increasingly net profit takers as the 20-stock Qatar Index tanked 1.33% to 10,607.96 points, although it touched an intraday high of 10,750 points.

The telecom and industrials counters witnessed higher than average selling pressure in the main market, whose year-to-date gains truncated to 0.35%. About 83% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main bourse, whose capitalisation eroded QR9.03bn or 1.4% to QR633.74bn, mainly on large and midcap segments.

However, the foreign institutions were increasingly bullish in the main market, which saw as many as 0.02mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by AlRayan Bank and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.07mn trade across 23 deals. Both local retail investors and domestic funds were also increasingly net buyers in the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the rise.

The Islamic index was seen declining faster than the other indices of the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills. The Arab individuals were increasingly net buyers in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds. The Total Return Index shed 1.33%, the All Share Index by 1.25% and the All Islamic Index by 1.49% in the main market.

The telecom sector index plunged 4.66%, industrials (1.77%), banks and financial services (0.97%), consumer goods and services (0.77%), transport (0.59%), insurance (0.42%) and real estate (0.3%). As many as eight stocks gained, while 43 declined and one was unchanged.

Major shakers in the main market include Ooredoo, Gulf Warehousing, QLM, Inma Holding, Widam Food, Doha Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, QNB, Qatar Oman Investment, Mannai Corporation, Baladna, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Estithmar Holding, Qamco and Vodafone Qatar. In the juniour bourse, Techno Q saw its shares depreciate in value. Nevertheless, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance, Dukhan Bank, Dlala, Beema and Nakilat were among the movers in the main market.

The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking expanded significantly to QR1.75bn compared to QR7.86mn the previous day. However, the foreign funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.45bn against net sellers of QR17.68mn on Wednesday. The local retail investors’ net buying increased considerably to QR143.08mn compared to QR12.31mn on November 19.

The domestic institutions’ net buying strengthened substantially to QR142.35mn against QR14.02mn the previous day. The Arab individual investors’ net buying grew noticeably to QR9.5mn compared to QR4.93mn on Wednesday. The foreign retail investors were net buyers to the extent of QR1.86mn against net sellers of QR5.28mn on November 19.

The Gulf individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.39mn compared with net profit takers of QR0.43mn the previous day.

 The Arab funds had no major net exposure for the fourth straight session.

 The main market saw trade volumes more than double to 298.99mn shares and value jump more than five-fold to QR2.53bn on 17% growth in deals to 33,003. In the venture market, a total of 0.09mn equities valued at QR0.19mn changed hands across 13 transactions.