QSE Treads Cautious Path Amidst Tariff Concerns

The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) on Sunday opened the week on a cautious note with investors awaiting clarity on the US tariff policy. 

The domestic funds were seen net buyers, albeit at lower levels, as the 20-stock Qatar index settled marginally higher by 0.03% to 10,830.72 points, recovering from an intraday low of 10,794 points. The telecom, real estate, consumer goods and insurance counters witnessed higher than average demand in the main market, whose year-to-date gains widened to 2.46%.

More than 45% of the traded constituents were however in the red in the main bourse, whose capitalisation was down QR0.21bn or 0.03% to QR639.92bn mainly on microcap segments. The foreign retail investors were increasingly net buyers in the main market, which saw 8,733 exchange traded funds (sponsored by AlRayan Bank and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.02mn trade across eight deals.

The Gulf institutions’ weakened net profit booking had its influence on the main bourse, whose trade turnover and volumes were on the decline. The Islamic index was seen outperforming the other indices of the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills. The foreign funds continued to be net buyers but with lesser vigour in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.

The Total Return Index was up 0.03% and the All Islamic Index by 0.21%, while the All Share Index was down 0.03% in the main market.

The telecom sector index increased 0.53%, realty (0.23%), consumer goods and services (0.22%) and insurance (0.21%); while banks and financial services declined 0.12%, transport (0.1%) and industrials (0.04%).

Major gainers in the main market included Meeza, Estithmar Holding, Vodafone Qatar, Al Khaleej Takaful, Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance and Qamco. In the junior bourse, Techno Q saw its shares appreciated in value.

Nevertheless, Qatar German Medical Devices, Ahlibank Qatar, Gulf International Services, Dlala and Doha Insurance were among the shakers in the main market. 

The domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.74mn compared with net sellers of QR4.12mn on July 10. The foreign individual investors’ net buying increased marginally to QR1.48mn against QR1.41mn last Thursday. The Gulf institutions’ net selling declined noticeably to QR2.06mn compared to QR12.74mn the previous trading day.