Global growth worries and falling oil prices yesterday weighed heavily on Qatari stocks yesterday as the market lost 144 points on the key index and QR9bn in capitalisation. Heavy selling pressure from foreign institutions and lower buying interest from their domestic counterparts led the Qatar Exchange’s the 20-stock benchmark to settle 1.76% lower at a five-month low of 8,070.69 points. The market is down 7.04% year-to-date. Industries Qatar (IQ), Masraf Al Rayan, Doha Bank, Commercialbank, Nakilat and Barwa were among the prime losers. The industrial index lost the maximum of 3.81%, followed by insurance (3.09%), services (2.08%) and banks (0.97%). Market capitalisation plunged 2.04% to QR427.48bn with small, mid, large and micro cap equities losing 2.30%, 1.99%, 1.55% and 1.54% respectively. Of the 42 stocks, only four advanced, while 34 declined, three were unchanged and one was not traded. Foreign institutions continued to be bearish but with lesser intensity as their net selling fell to 15.82% from 16.61% the previous day. A higher 14.44% of them were into buying compared to 9.73% on Monday and a higher 30.26% were into selling against 26.34%. However, domestic institutions turned bullish as they were net buyers to the extent of 12.85% compared with net sellers of 2.04% in the previous day. A much higher 37.55% of them bought equities against 20.07% on Monday although a lower 24.70% of them sold compared to 22.11%. Qatari individual investors’ bullish grip considerably eased as their net buying sunk to 5.60% from 18.20% the previous day. A much lower 38.10% of them purchased equities against 55.76% on Monday and a lower 32.50% sold compared to 37.56%. Non-Qatari retail investors turned profit-takers as they were net sellers to the tune of 2.63% against net buyers of 0.44% in the previous day. A lower 9.91% of them were into buying against 14.43% on Monday and a marginally lower 12.54% were into offloading compared to 13.99%. Total trading volume surged 95% to 14.81mn equities, value more than doubled to QR618.34mn on 70% jump in deals to 7,576. The industrial sector’s trading volume more than tripled to 1.96mn shares, value more than doubled to QR179.04mn and transactions also more than doubled to 1,386. The insurance sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 0.09mn shares, value also more than doubled to QR5.74mn on 71% gain in deals to 82. Banks’ trading volume shot up 86% to 5.53mn equities, value by 121% to QR231.16mn and transactions by 80% to 2,542. The services sector’s trading zoomed 84% to 7.23mn shares, value by 80% to QR202.40mn and deals by 48% to 3,566. Actively traded stocks (in terms of volume) were Rayan (3.28mn shares); Barwa (3.06mn); Nakilat (1.35mn); IQ (1.24mn) and Vodafone Qatar (1.02mn). http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=451694&version=1&template_id=48&parent_id=28

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