By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Increased buying interests of domestic institutions extended the bullish run in the Qatar Stock Exchange for the third consecutive day and its key index added another 72 points to inch near the 9,900 level.

An across the board buying – notably in the consumer goods, real estate and industrials – led the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.74% to 9,862.03 points.

Non-Qatari individual investors turned bullish and lower selling pressure from Gulf institutions also helped the market, which is, however, down 19.73% year-to-date.

However, foreign institutions and local retail investors turned net profit takers in the bourse, where overall volumes were seen expanding.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices in the market, where the banking, realty and industrials sectors dominated the trading ring as their stocks accounted for about 72% of the volumes.

Market capitalisation rose 0.73% or about QR4bn to QR521.27bn with small, micro, large and mid cap equities gaining 1.83%, 0.67%, 0.58% and 0.37% respectively.

The Total Return Index gained 0.74% to 15,329.11 points, All Share Index by 0.76% to 2,631.5 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.41% to 3,631.77 points.

Consumer goods stocks soared 1.85%, real estate (1.18%), industrials (0.89%), banks and financial services (0.59%), insurance (0.28%), transport (0.26%) and telecom (0.17%).

More than 63% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, QNB, Vodafone Qatar, Ezdan, United Development Company, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al Rayan and Medicare Group; even as Ooredoo, Gulf International Services and Commercial Bank bucked the trend.

Domestic institutions’ net buying increased perceptibly to QR18.19mn compared to QR2.11mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR1.26mn against net sellers of QR0.1mn on Tuesday.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) institutions’ net selling weakened to QR0.19mn compared to QR5.84mn on December 15.

However, non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR17.18mn against net buyers of QR1.87mn the previous day.

Local retail investors were also net sellers to the tune of QR1.29mn compared with net buyers of QR1.28mn on Tuesday.

The GCC individual investors turned net profit takers to the extent of QR0.77mn against net buyers of QR0.66mn on December 15.

Total trade volume rose 30% to 6.84mn shares, value by 38% to QR274.39mn and deals by 29% to 3,818.

The industrials sector saw 85% surge in trade volume to 0.98mn equities, more than doubling value to QR59.94mn and transactions grew 70% to 865.

The real estate sector’s trade volume soared 60% to 1.25mn stocks, value by 32% to QR27.83mn and deals by 38% to 524.

There was 60% expansion in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.08mn shares, 82% in value to QR5.63mn and 96% in transactions to 112.

The telecom sector’s trade volume increased 57% to 0.85mn equities, value by 54% to QR17.72mn and deals by 28% to 591.

The banks and financial services sector reported 14% rise in trade volume to 2.68mn stocks, 28% in value to QR124.3mn and 11% in transactions to 1,037.

The transport sector’s trade volume was up 2% to 0.88mn shares and value by 15% to QR26.17mn, while deals fell 13% to 377.

However, the market witnessed 20% shrinkage in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.12mn equities and 13% in value to QR12.79mn but on 59% jump in transactions to 312.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills but a total of 200,600 government bonds valued at QR2.01bn traded across 12 deals.