The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) ended Thursday in the red for the second successive session and witnessed the first session of trading for fashion apparel retailer Marka. The market saw profit-taking amid selling pressures in the real estate sector.

The benchmark index fell 0.21% or 1.77 pts to 5054.25 pts.

“The successful listing of Marka further fortifies the prominent position of DFM as the most favored listing venue for leading local and regional companies and lifts the total number of listed companies to fifty-five,” DFM stated in a press release issued today.

Marka ended Thursday on a high note, leaping by 59% to AED 1.590, after cutting some gains towards the end of the session.

A total of 36 companies traded on Thursday, of which 12 were in the green, 14 in the red and 10 remained unchanged.

Profit-taking on the real estate sector continued for the second session, causing the sector to shed 0.47% with pressure from Emaar, which dropped 0.86%. Meanwhile, Arabtec remained unchanged.

The investment and telecoms sectors also lost 0.4% and 0.18%, respectively. The banking sector, however, ended on a high note, gaining 0.12% as Emirates NBD and Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) gained 1.03% and 0.36%, respectively.

A total of 348.47 million shares traded today at AED 951.6 million through the execution of 6694 transactions.