Qatar share index plunges 327 points on profit-booking

By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange witnessed mayhem on Thursday with its key barometer plunging 327 points to settle below 12,000 levels and capitalisation eroding by about QR16bn.
Strong profit-booking, especially in the real estate and telecom sectors, led the 20-stock Qatar Index to plummet 2.67% to 11,902.07 points as almost three-fourth of the traded equities witnessed share price shrinkage.
Domestic and Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) institutions’ net selling pressure was mainly instrumental in dragging the bourse, which is down 3.12% down year-to-date.
Large and mid cap equities experienced heavy selloff in the market, where trading was largely skewed towards realty and banking sectors, whose stocks together accounted for more than 85% of the overall volume.
Market capitalisation eroded 2.41% to QR633.78bn with large, mid, small and micro cap equities melting 1.84%, 1.03%, 0.63% and 0.5% respectively.
The Total Return Index tanked 2.67% to 18,496.43 points, the All Share Index by 2.32% to 3,183.78 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 2.64% to 4,528.91 points.
“Despite the strong fundamentals of the domestic economy, unfortunately the market is being swayed by negative news emanating from foreign shores,” an analyst, wishing anonymity, said.
Realty stocks plunged 7.11%, followed by telecom (5.9%), industrials (1.98%), banks and financial services (1.3%) and consumer goods (1.1%); even as insurance surged 3.47% and transport (0.05%).
Major losers included Ezdan, Barwa, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, QNB, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Dlala and Milaha, while Qatar Insurance, Gulf Warehousing, Qatar Islamic Bank and Nakilat bucked the trend.
Domestic institutions’ net selling substantially increased to QR1.04bn compared to QR96.57mn the previous day.
The GCC institutions’ net profit-booking also strengthened to QR134.08mn against QR12.8mn on May 27.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR1bn compared to QR162.74mn on Wednesday.
Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR146.9mn against net sellers of QR21.81mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR37.93mn compared with net sellers of QR9.6mn on May 27.
GCC individual investors’ net profit-booking plunged to QR9.08mn against QR22.14mn on Wednesday.
Total trade volume almost quadrupled to 86.92mn shares and value more than tripled to QR2.67bn on a 65% jump in deals to 12,996.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than six-fold to 5.82mn equities and value by almost seven-fold to QR573.22mn on a 59% expansion in transactions to 852.
The real estate sector’s trade volume expanded almost five-fold to 65.77mn stocks and value almost quadrupled to QR1.28bn on a 63% rise in deals to 4,618.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.42mn shares and value more than tripled to QR61.17mn on more-than-tripled transactions to 990.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.45mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR208.56mn on a 56% surge in deals to 1,859.
The banks and financial services sector reported an 89% jump in trade volume to 8.29mn stocks, 93% in value to QR500.4mn and 68% in transactions to 3,889.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 45% to 0.39mn shares, value by 57% to QR12.9mn and deals by 8% to 216.
The market witnessed a 12% decline in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.76mn equities but there was a 40% increase in value to QR33.32mn and 35% in transactions to 572.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.