DOHA: Poor net buying support from foreign institutional investors kept the trading sentiment subdued last week.

Foreign institutional investors have been booking profit for a while and the trend was more pronounced last week.

The result was a 182-point slide in the main index of Qatar Exchange, the local bourse.

The 20-share benchmark index which hovered around the psychologically critical level of 7,000 early in the week, fell below the mark to 6,953.53 at the end of the five-day trading.

The index loss meant an erosion of QR6.48bn in terms of market capitalisation. In other words, investors on the Qatari bourse lost QR6.48bn in weekly trading.

The trading value, volumes as well as the number of transactions concluded on the bourse fell in double digits.

The services sector which groups the largest number of listed entities, led the trading value, volumes as well in the number of deals transacted.

Only 10 of the 44 listed stocks ended higher in the week with as many as 31 falling. Three shares remained unchanged.

A highlight was that the Qatar Meat and Livestock Company emerged as a surprise leader leading the trading value as it accounted for more than 17 percent of the total.

The second spot was bagged by Commercialbank which had a 12.61 percent share in the trading value.

Large cap Industries Qatar, which dominates trading value most of the time in weekly trading, ranked a poor third this time, accounting for a 12.38 percent share in the total.