Qatar stocks take a hit, down 2.9 percent

Qatar bourse’s main index tumbled 2.9 percent yesterday amid heavy sell-off by foreign institutional investors to end the week at 12,942.

All the seven sectoral indices ended red, with the real estate and banking and financial sectors hitting the worst.

Property Developer Ezdan Group plunged 5.19 percent. Banking major QNB lost 3.13 percent and QIB and Commercial Bank edged 3.37 percent and 3.38 percent respectively. Market cap declined to QR699bn from QR718bn.

According to Qatar Exchange (QE) weekly data the benchmark index lost 6.43 percent past week and market cap fell by 5.86 percent, compared to the previous week. Real estate sector and the Industrials were the top losers.

Real estate stocks tanked 9.09 percent in the past week, while Industrial sector shed 6.98 percent. Property developer Ezdan tumbled 10.49 percent.

However, total trading value increased by 3.11 percent in the past week. Total trading volume decreased by 18 percent to 53 million shares against the previous week’s 65 million shares. The number of transactions rose by 9.12 percent.

The banks and financial services sector led trading value during the week, accounting for 43.99 percent, followed by Industrials sector, real estate and consumer goods and service sector. [The Peninsula]