Business | Markets
Abu Dhabi stocks surge 11% this year
The Abu Dhabi Securities Market Index (ADSMI) hit a more than two-year high of 5,047.79 on Sunday, which was not entirely unexpected, given the benchmark's performance year-to-date.
- By Gaurav Ghose, Financial Features Editor
- Published: 00:27 May 5, 2008
Dubai: The Abu Dhabi Securities Market Index (ADSMI) hit a more than two-year high of 5,047.79 on Sunday, which was not entirely unexpected, given the benchmark's performance year-to-date.
The index is up 10.85 per cent this year, while for the same period the Dubai Financial Market General Index (DFMGI) is down 1.50 per cent. And in terms of 12-month change, ADSMI is also ahead of the Dubai benchmark, 64.46 per cent to 52.22 per cent.
ADSMI ended the day 0.41 per cent up over Thursday to close at 5,045.46. Of the 45 traded companies, 30 advanced, 11 declined and four remained unchanged.
Analysts aren't surprised. At the end of April, when Gulf News spoke to some analysts, they had predicted that with both Abu Dhabi and Dubai indices testing their 5,000 and 6,000 levels respectively, sooner rather than later that they would hit them. One of them said that he expects the Abu Dhabi market to outperform Dubai this year.
Fundamentals
"Abu Dhabi has several stocks which have fundamentally good valuation," said P. Krishna Murthy, CEO of Al Rostamani Group's Financial Services Division.
"And the first reflection of any good economy is on the banking sector and a lot of banks have performed well, particularly National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and First Gulf Bank (FGB). First Gulf has moved up from Dh12 to Dh13 to almost Dh22 to Dh23."
The energy sector led by Aabar Energy (Aabar) and Abu Dhabi National Energy (Taqa) contributed to the market's high yesterday. Both companies, which reported strong first quarter earnings, were the top two in terms of turn-over and volume.
Aabar was up 5.7 per cent to close at Dh3.54 in trading of Dh356.3 million worth of shares.
"The announcement of the change of board members excited the market and that led to huge volumes being traded," said Moosa Haddad, head of trade, Discretionary Mandate, National Bank of Abu Dhabi. "But basically all were local buyers. But we don't know yet what their plans are - what's next after they sold the subsidiary Pearl Energy which contributed to the good first quarter results."
The DFMGI appreciated 0.47 per cent to 5,.842.87 with turnover increasing by 14 per cent to Dh1.72 billion. Dubai Financial Market (DFM) was the most active stock by value with a turnover of Dh404.29 million and closing at Dh6.20. Of the 29 stocks traded, 14 rose, eight fell and seven remained unchanged.
Share this article
More from Markets
More from Business
Popular in Business
-
Budget travel
Airlines in the region
Take a pictorial look at some of the budget airlines in GCC
Business Editor's choice
-
New law to protect investor rights
Dubai land department is studying legislation to protect property purchasers
-
Global Village
Revamped layout featuring four cultures to greet visitors this season
-
Cloud computing is here to stay
Managing security effectively is critical when sharing data over the internet
