Qatar’s QSE gains 43 points; year-to-date returns turn positive

Qatar’s QSE gains 43 points; year-to-date returns turn positive

Qatar - The Qatar Stock Exchange Monday gained more than 42 points and its key index surpassed 10,700 levels, thus entering a positive terrain on a year-to-date basis.

The insurance, telecom, real estate and transport sectors witnessed higher than average demand as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 0.4% to 10,715.6 points.

The market, which was skewed towards movers, regained from an intraday low of 10,557 points.

The foreign institutions were increasingly into net buying in the main market, which showed year-to-date gains of 0.32%.

The domestic funds’ weakened net profit booking had its influence in the main bourse, whose capitalisation added QR1.44bn or 0.23% to QR626.14bn, mainly on account of microcap segments.

The local retail investors’ lower net selling pressure also had its say in the main market, which saw a total of 0.15mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.65mn changed hands across 24 deals.

The Gulf institutions continued to be net buyers but with lesser intensity in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.

The Islamic index was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the main market, which saw no trading of treasury bills.

The Total Return Index gained 0.4%, All Share Index by