By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Foreign institutions were increasingly profit takers, which led the Qatar Stock Exchange plunge 322 points for the second straight session to settle below 10,100 levels and capitalisation to erode more than QR17bn on Tuesday.
Insurance, banking and real estate counters witnessed the maximum selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index plunged 3.09% to 10,096.51 points, amid expansion in overall volumes.
Increased net selling from non-Qatari retail investors and weakened buying interests of domestic institutions also played their part in dampening the market, which is down 17.82% year-to-date.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was however seen melting slower than the other indices in the bourse, where the banking, realty and telecom sectors dominated the trading ring as their stocks accounted for more than three-fourth of the volumes.
Market capitalisation eroded 3.15% to QR531.55bn with large, small, micro and mid cap equities losing 3.7%, 2.25%, 1.62% and 1.1% respectively.
The Total Return Index shrank 3.09% to 15,693.58 points, All Share Index by 3.01% to 2,692.15 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 2.94% to 3,740.15 points.
Insurance stocks plummeted 4.47%, banks and financial services (3.93%), real estate (3.21%), industrials (2.78%), telecom (2.4%) and consumer goods (0.36%); whereas transport gained 0.94%.
Three-fourth of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being QNB, Industries Qatar, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, United Development Company, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, QIIB, Masraf Al Rayan, al khaliji, Qatar General and Reinsurance and Doha Insurance; even as Doha Bank and Nakilat were seen bucking the trend.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net profit booking increased further to QR100.04mn against QR61.8mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling strengthened to QR4.19mn compared to QR1.03mn on December 7.
Domestic institutions’ net buying weakened to QR78.12mn against QR86.56mn the previous day.
However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR10.27mn compared with net sellers of QR8.98mn on Monday.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) individual investors were also net buyers to the extent of QR1.26mn against net sellers of QR5.59mn the previous day.
The GCC institutions were also net buyers to the tune of QR14.65mn compared with net sellers of QR9.12mn on December 7.
Total trade volume grew 74% to 8.77mn shares, value by 62% to QR380.54mn and deals by 59% to 5,178.
The insurance sector’s trade volume quadrupled to 0.24mn equities and value more than quadrupled to QR18.41mn on more than doubled transactions to 156.
The transport sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 0.68mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR18.24mn on 65% jump in deals to 377.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.49mn shares and value almost doubled to QR189.16mn on 84% expansion in transactions to 1,911.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.29mn equities and value also more than doubled to QR14.16mn on more than doubled deals to 289.
The market witnessed 65% surge in telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.24mn stocks, 34% in value to QR24.53mn and 10% in transactions to 542.
The real estate sector’s trade volume shot up 42% to 1.85mn shares, value by 39% to QR48.11mn and deals by 63% to 918.
The industrials sector saw 4% rise in trade volume to 0.98mn equities, 1% in value to QR67.93mn and 32% in transactions to 985.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

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