Qatar Telecom stocks made an impressive 5% gain to lift the Qatar’s bourse for the second day yesterday.
Micro and large cap equities were seen favourites as the 20-stock benchmark settled 0.76% higher at 7,510.29 points. The market is however up 7.96% year-to-date.
Local and foreign retail investors largely bought stocks dumped by foreign institutions.
Services witnessed the maximum buying as its index surged 1.56%, followed by insurance (1.27%), industry (0.47%) and banks and financial institution (0.36%).
Of the 42 stocks; 24 gained, while only five declined, eight were unchanged and five were not traded.
Market capitalisation gained 0.68% or about QR3bn to QR397.35bn mainly on 1.15% and 0.73% jump in micro and large cap equities.
Total trading volume rose 10% to 4.14mn equities, value by 9% to QR118.18mn and transactions by 2% to 2,007.
Insurance sector’s trading volume doubled to 0.04mn shares; value jumped 63% to QR2.62mn and deals by 67% to 50.
Services sector saw its trading volume surge 16% to 2.47mn stocks, value by 22% to QR67.05mn and transactions by 13% to 1,120.
Banks and financial institution saw its trading rise 3% to 1.22mn equities whereas value lost 27% to QR30.83mn and deals by 23% to 513.
Industrial sector’s trading however volume lost 2% to 0.41mn shares but value gained 17% to QR17.67mn and transactions by 17% to 324.
Local retail investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 6.13% compared with net sellers of 3.12% in the previous day.
A much higher 62.94% of them were into buying stocks against 39.02% on Wednesday although a higher 56.81% into offloading compared with 42.14%.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ bullish grip strengthened as their net buying rose to 1.61% from 0.02% in the previous day.
A higher 19.44% of them purchased equities against 15.75% on Wednesday and a higher 17.83% sold compared with 15.73%.
Foreign institutions however turned profit takers as they were net sellers to the extent of 3.03% against net buyers of 4.27% in the previous day.
A much lower 9.50% of them were into buying against 38.01% on Wednesday and a much lower 12.53% into selling compared with 33.74%.
Local institutions’ bearish grip strengthened as their net selling rose to 4.71% from 1.17% in the previous day.
A marginally higher 8.12% of them bought equities against 7.22% on Wednesday and a higher 12.83% sold compared with 8.39%.
Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Masraf Al Rayan (866,821 shares); National Leasing (701,406); Vodafone Qatar (477,155); Barwa (322,209) and Mawashi (248.753).
Reuters adds: Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding Co (DIDIC) made its biggest one-day gain since May after selling its stake in Bank Dhofar, pushing Oman to a higher close.
The Muscat index closed 0.25% higher at 6,301.8 points, its sixth gain in the last seven sessions.
DIDIC said earlier yesterday it sold a 2.5% stake it held in Bank Dhofar, Oman’s second-largest bank by market value, at 0.750 baiza a share.
DIDIC ended 7.45% up, its biggest one-day rise since May 27. Bank Dhofar was flat at 0.727 baiza.
Oman Flour Mills climbed 3.45% to 0.690 basis points, National Bank of Oman gained 0.3%.
Markets in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were closed ahead of Eid al-Fitr today.
[read more]
