Mubasher: The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) plunged in Wednesday’s trades, affected by a collective fall of its sectors, bringing market capitalisation losses to QAR 4.5 billion.

The general index declined 0.94% to reach 7,856.24 points, losing 74.54 points.

By the end of trades, the bourse’s market value decreased 1.05% to reach QAR       424.8 billion, compared to QAR 429.3 billion on Tuesday.

The fall of a number of leading stocks, which constitute more than 37% of the index affected the bourse negatively as Qatar National Bank (QNB) declined 0.17%, Industries Qatar (IQ) lost 1.04% and Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) shed 1.05%.

Wednesday’s session witnessed a collective decline of sectors topped by the real estate sector, which decreased 1.83% due to a drop in its four stocks led by Barwa Real Estate’s 2.31% decline.

Ongoing geopolitical tensions, across Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Lebanon, have continued to impact the QSE and kept investors from entering the markets, Taha AbdelGhany, chairman of Namaa Consulting Group, told Mubasher.

These tensions have prompted a wave of selling across the QSE’s blue chips, with QNB being the only gainer and was the value leader with QAR 40.4 million, the analyst added.

The industrial sector declined 0.44% on the back of six of its stocks, topped by Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC), which lost 2.63%.

Similarly, the banking sector shed 0.41% as a result of a drop in a number of its stocks led by Alijarah’s 6.74% plunge. The sector shrugged off Islamic Holding Group’s (IHG) 9.55% surge.

On Wednesday, liquidity jumped to QAR 636.47 million, versus QAR 273.04 million on Tuesday, whereas traded volume decreased to reach 4.64 million shares against 8.54 million in the last session.

Ezdan Holding’s stock fell 1.7% but topped the QSE in terms of traded volume with 620,300 stocks, while QNB topped the liquidity with QAR 40.4 million.

The QSE will not see gains in the coming period until political tensions ease, AbdelGhany concluded.