Buying support from foreign institutions mainly lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday after three days of bearish spell, even as its capitalisation continued to erode by another QR8bn.
Local retail investors' net buying with less vigour also helped the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) gain 0.4% to 12,677.59 points.
Buying was seen intense at the transport and telecom counters in the market, which is up 22.14% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the bourse where trading activities were on the upside.
Overall, volumes were mainly skewed towards realty and banking equities.
The 20-stock Total Return Index rose 0.4% to 18,905.03 points, the All Share Index (with wider constituents) by 0.27% to 3,245.03 and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.52% to 4,192.71. All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Transport stocks appreciated 0.72%, followed by telecom (0.61%), industrials (0.39%) and banks and financial services (0.38%), whereas real estate fell 0.99%, consumer goods 0.31% and insurance lost 0.11%.
Major gainers included Industries Qatar, Nakilat, Ooredoo, Gulf International Services, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Al Khaleej Takaful and Widam Food.
However, QNB, Commercial Bank, Aamal Company, Ezdan, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar, Qatari Investors Group and Doha Insurance bucked the trend.
Market capitalisation eroded 1.14% to QR731.97bn. Small and large cap stocks fell 0.15% and 0.05%, while micro and mid caps rose 0.3% and 0.17% respectively.
Qatari retail investors' net buying rose to QR33.01mn compared to QR32.73mn the previous day.
Foreign institutions' net selling plunged to QR6.09mn against QR21.71mn on Tuesday.
Domestic institutions' net profit-booking shrank to QR10.08mn compared to QR16.71mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR16.62mn against net buyers of QR4.84mn on Tuesday.
Total trading volume rose 47% to 27.57mn stocks, value by 42% to QR1.11bn and transactions by 20% to 10,808.
The real estate sector's trading volume zoomed 92% to 14.08mn equities, value by 96% to QR392.79mn and deals by 61% to 3,587.
The market witnessed a 63% surge in the transport sector's trading volume to 1.74mn shares, 25% in value to QR48.56mn and 18% in transactions to 561.
The telecom sector's trading soared 39% to 1.88mn stocks, while value was down 3% to QR43.36mn. Deals were up 8% to 575.
The banks and financial services sector reported a 32% expansion in trading volume to 5.43mn equities, 57% fall in value to QR304.84mn and 18% in transactions to 2,696.
The consumer goods sector's trading volume gained 16% to 2.01mn shares, value by 66% to QR127.75mn and deals by 32% to 1,231.
However, the insurance sector's trading volume plummeted 34% to 0.57mn stocks, value by 21% to QR22.96mn and transactions by 15% to 319.
There was a 19% plunge in the industrials sector's trading volume to 1.87mn equities, 15% in value to QR167.62mn and 16% in deals to 1,839.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.
UAE markets slide
Stock markets in the UAE remained weak yesterday while bourses in Qatar and Egypt rebounded after several days of losses.
Dubai's bourse edged down 0.5% with declines across the board. Lender Emirates NBD, down 2%, was the main drag.
Shares in Arabtec's, which soared 50% this month, fell 0.6% in early trade before trading was suspended for the rest of the day from 0700 GMT when its annual shareholder meeting opened.
At the meeting, Arabtec proposed to replace a 10% cash dividend for 2013 - suggested earlier by its board - with additional bonus shares.
Arabtec chief executive Hasan Ismaik also said the company would spin off and float 40% of its construction business in an initial public offering on the Abu Dhabi bourse slated for 2015.
With Dubai's year-to-date gains at 51%, Middle East fund managers have become more cautious about the UAE because of concern that Dubai may be overheating, a monthly Reuters survey showed yesterday.
Twenty-seven percent of managers in the latest survey expect to raise their UAE equity allocations in the next three months, while 40% expect to reduce them. That is a major swing from the March survey, when 40% were bullish and only 20% bearish.
Abu Dhabi's benchmark slid 0.5% largely because of banking stocks.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank dropped 2.1%, Union National Bank fell 1.9% and National Bank of Abu Dhabi slipped 1.7%.
Egypt's index climbed 1.3% largely due to Global Telecom, which gained 2.8% on higher-than-average volume.
The stock had pulled back slightly after surging 15% last week on news the firm had resolved a long-running dispute with the Algerian government by selling a majority stake in the country's biggest telecoms operator for $2.6bn.
Elsewhere, shares in Oman's No 2 telecom operator, Nawras, climbed 1.8% after it reported a 14% rise in first-quarter net profit yesterday. Oman's index dipped 0.2% to 6,727 points.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia's index climbed 0.2% to 9,585 points; Kuwait's measure slipped 0.02% to 7,408 points, while Bahrain's index rose 0.1% to 1,427 points.
© Gulf Times 2014
