By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Sharp corrections, especially in the real estate and consumer goods, landed the Qatar Stock Exchange in the negative turf and its key index lost 81 points.

Foreign institutions were increasingly profit takers as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.78% to 10,418.47 points amid increase in overall volumes.

Increased net selling was also seen among local, Gulf and non-Qatari retail investors as well as Gulf institutions in the market, which is down 15.2% year-to-date.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting faster than the other indices in the bourse, where the banking, realty and industrials sectors dominated the trading ring as their stocks accounted for about 77% of the volumes.

Market capitalisation shed 0.59% or more than QR3bn to QR548.83bn with small, mid and large cap equities losing 1.29%, 0.62% and 0.05% respectively; even as micro caps rose 0.12%.

The Total Return Index shrank 0.78% to 16,194.02 points, All Share Index by 0.71% to 2,775.58 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.16% to 3,853.47 points.

Real estate stocks plunged 3.21%, consumer goods (1.57%), industrials (0.68%) and telecom (0.66%); whereas insurance gained 0.24%, banks and financial services (0.17%) and transport (0.15%).

More than 64% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Qatari Investors Group, Doha Bank, QIIB, United Development Company and Widam Food; even as QNB and Nakilat bucked the trend.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking increased substantially to QR61.8mn against QR37.15mn on Sunday.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors’ net selling strengthened to QR5.59mn compared to QR0.97mn on December 6.

The GCC institutions’ net selling also expanded to QR9.12mn against QR8.41mn the previous day.

Local retail investors’ net profit booking rose to QR8.98mn compared to QR3.27mn on Sunday.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling rose to QR1.03mn against QR0.45mn on December 6.

However, domestic institutions’ net buying strengthened to QR86.56mn compared to QR50.25mn the previous day.

Total trade volume rose 19% to 5.03mn shares, value by 31% to QR235.08mn and deals by 25% to 3,265.

The insurance sector’s trade volume tripled to 0.06mn equities and value grew more than 19-fold to QR4.44mn on six-fold jump in transactions to 60.

The real estate sector’s trade volume soared 60% to 1.3mn stocks, value by 73% to QR34.51mn and deals by 86% to 564.

The banks and financial services sector reported 53% surge in trade volume to 1.61mn shares and 90% in value to QR99.42mn on more than doubled transactions to 1,039.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume expanded 17% to 0.14mn equities, while value shrank 36% to QR5.84mn and deals by 22% to 135.

The market witnessed 17% increase in telecom sector’s trade volume to 0.75mn stocks; even as there was 4% decline in value to QR18.35mn and 18% in transactions to 493.

However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 57% to 0.23mn shares and value by 61% to QR5.36mn, while deals grew 24% to 229.

The industrials sector saw 10% decline in trade volume to 0.94mn equities but on 3% rise in value to QR67.16mn. Transactions were down 10% to 745.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.