Local Retail Investors Lift QSE 53 Points; Islamic Equities Outperform

Overcoming the initial weakness, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) Tuesday finally settled 53 points higher on the back of strong buying support from local retail investors.

The banking counter witnessed higher than average demand as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 0.5% to 10,674.06 points, recovering from an intraday low of 10,573 points.

The Gulf institutions were increasingly net buyers in the main market, whose year-to-date gains improved further to 0.97%.

About 61% of the traded constituents extended gains to investors in the main bourse, whose capitalisation added QR2.55bn or 0.4% to QR638.02bn, mainly on small and microcap segments.

The Arab individuals were increasingly bearish in the main market, which saw as many as 3,616 exchange traded funds (sponsored by AlRayan Bank and Doha Bank) valued at QR8,024 trade across eight deals.

The Arab individuals’ weakened net selling had its influence on the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the rise.

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

However, the domestic institutions were increasingly net profit takers in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.

The Total Return Index rose 0.5%, the All Share Index by 0.43% and the All Islamic Index by 0.57% in the main market.

The banks and financial services sector index gained 0.63%, telecom (0.42%), industrials (0.29%), consumer goods and services (0.11%), insurance (0.08%) and real estate (0.02%); while transport was down 0.09%.

As many as 31 stocks gained, while 17 declined and three were unchanged.

Major movers in the main market include QLM, Widam Food, Qatar German Medical Devices, Vodafone Qatar, AlRayan Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Al Faleh Educational Holding and Industries Qatar.

Nevertheless, Inma Holding, Beema, Nakilat, Qatar National Cement and Barwa were among the shakers in the main bourse. In the venture market, Techno Q saw its shares depreciate in value.

The local retail investors’ net buying increased substantially to QR44.87mn compared to QR2.22mn on December 1.

The Gulf institutions’ net buying strengthened markedly to QR7.71mn against QR0.49mn the previous day.

The Arab institutions’ net buying expanded marginally to QR0.15mn compared to QR0.02mn on Monday.

The Arab individual investors’ net selling weakened noticeably to QR2.21mn against QR5.86mn on December 1.

However, the domestic funds’ net profit booking increased significantly to QR49.5mn compared to QR4.97mn the previous day.

The foreign institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR1.36mn against net buyers of QR5.57mn on Monday.

The foreign individuals were net sellers to the tune of QR0.07mn compared with net buyers of QR1.69mn on December 1.

The Gulf retail investors’ net buying decreased perceptibly to QR0.41mn against QR0.83mn the previous day.

The main market saw 24% jump in trade volumes to 137.53mn shares, 24% in value to QR425.41mn and 85% in deals to 30,317.

In the venture market, a total of 0.05mn equities valued at QR0.11mn changed hands across 18 transactions.