Qatar: Selling pressure from local retail investors and foreign funds drag QSE 38 points

Qatar: Selling pressure from local retail investors and foreign funds drag QSE 38 points

The Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday declined 38 points with local retail investors increasingly resorting to net profit booking.

A higher than average selling pressure in the transport sector was visible as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.35% lower at 10,643.94 points.

The market, which was skewed towards movers, had touched an intraday high 10,700 points.

The foreign institutions were seen net sellers in the main market, whose year-to-date losses widened to 0.35%.

The foreign individuals turned bearish in the main bourse, whose capitalisation was up QR0.08bn or 0.01% to QR628.6bn, mainly on account of microcap segments.

More than 54% of the traded constituents were seen extending gains to investors in the main market, which saw a total of 0.06mn exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank) valued at QR0.18mn changed hands across 13 deals.

However, the Gulf institutions were increasingly net buyers in the main bourse, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.

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

The Total Return Index shed 0.35%, the All Share Index by 0.12% and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.51% in the main bourse, whose trade turnover