Foreign selling pressure weighs on Qatar bourse

The Qatar Exchange continued to remain on a bearish mode yesterday mainly on foreign institutions’ selling pressure, a day after MSCI decided to retain the “frontier” status of the bourse. Selling was more pronounced in large and micro cap equities as the QE Index (based on price data) fell 0.65% to 8,253.46 points. The market is down 5.99% year-to-date. The All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) and the Total Return Index also lost 0.62% and 0.65% to 1,991.50 and 11,169.91 points respectively. Both the indices factored in dividend income as well. Global index compiler MSCI retained the “frontier” status on the QE citing foreign ownership issues; an upgrade would have seen a $2bn-$4bn funds inflow. About 67% of the stocks were in the red with major shakers being QNB, Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan and Industries Qatar; while Gulf Warehousing and United Development Company bucked the trend. Under the All Share Index category, the insurance index tanked 0.99%, followed by banks and financial services (0.79%), industrials (0.78%), telecoms (0.40%), consumer goods (0.06%) and transport (0.03%); while the realty index rose 0.06%. Market capitalisation shrank 0.69% or more than QR3bn to QR453.82bn with large, micro and mid cap equities notably melting 0.84%, 0.58% and 0.41% respectively. Of the 42 stocks, only eight gained, while 28 declined, four were unchanged and two were not traded. Foreign institutions were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling surged to 8.78% from 2.53% the previous day. Their net selling amounted to QR14.47mn. Although a higher 20.45% of them were into buying against 9.77% on Wednesday, a much higher 29.23% of them into selling compared to 12.30%. Domestic institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour as their net buying fell to 3.94% from 6.97% the previous day. Their net buying was QR6.49mn. A lower 12.83% of them bought equities compared to 15.62% on Wednesday while a marginally higher 8.89% offloaded against 8.65%. Qatari individual investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 4.24% compared with net sellers of 1.42% the previous day. Their net buying amounted to QR6.99mn. A lower 51.28% of them purchased equities compared to 51.46% on Wednesday and a lower 47.04% sold against 55.88%. Non-Qatari retail investors turned marginally bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 0.59% compared with net sellers of 3.03% the previous day. Their net buying was QR0.97mn. A lower 15.44% of them were into buying against 20.15% on Wednesday and a lower 14.85% were into offloading against 23.18%. Total trading volume rose 10% to 6.22mn equities, value by 32% to QR164.84mn and deals by 15% to 2,977. The real estate sector’s trading volume almost quadrupled to 2.68mn shares and value more than tripled to QR36.93mn on more than doubled transactions to 699. The insurance sector’s trading volume zoomed 80% to 0.09mn shares and value more than doubled to QR5.15mn, but amid a 4% fall in deals to 70. The transport sector’s trading volume soared 65% to 0.79mn shares, value by 99% to QR27.01mn and transactions by 53% to 331. The industrials sector’s trading volume gained 33% to 0.48mn shares, value by 77% to QR31.98mn and deals by 49% to 507. However, the banks and financial services sector’s trading volume plummeted 48% to 1.44mn shares, value by 18% to QR44.42mn and transactions by 16% to 900. The telecom sector’s trading volume plunged 43% to 0.35mn shares and value by 1% to QR10.42mn while deals rose 4% to 227. The consumer goods and services sector’s trading volume tanked 39% to 0.39mn shares, value by 37% to QR8.92mn and transactions by 26% to 243. Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Mazaya Qatar (2.49mn shares); Qatar Oman Investment (755,931); GWC (510,053); Rayan (299,563) and Vodafone Qatar (281,803). In the debt market, there was no trading.from gulf times.