Dubai: Equity investors in Dubai eyed for stability in crude oil prices even as the Dubai index cut earlier losses to end more than 3 per cent lower on Tuesday due to recovery in crude oil.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index ended 3.52 per cent to be at 3,888.79, retracing from the intraday low of 3,760.90, the level last seen in early February.

Slumping crude oil has triggered the entry of Saudi’s Tadawul and Dubai entering into bear markets.

“It’s mainly to do with crude oil, and some people are also cashing in the gains that we have seen all this year,” Musa Huddad, equity fund manager at National Bank of Abu Dhabi Asset Management Group. “Markets would continue to be volatile, choppy and we may see little more downside.”

Brent and West Texas Intermediate rebounded from the lowest closing levels in more than five years amid signs that US oil producers were curbing investment as price competition intensified between OPEC’s largest members.

However, investors would look for stability in crude oil before making use of any buying opportunity in weak markets.

“In terms of valuations, shares are becoming attractive at these levels, but we need oil prices to stabilise at around $65 per barrel for markets to start acting positively as no one wants to catch a falling knife,” Huddad said.

In stock specific movements, Emaar Properties, the real estate developer with more than 18 per cent weightage in Dubai’s gauge, retracted to end 3.61 per cent lower at Dh8.02, after losing as much as 9.85. Arabtec ended more than 6 per cent lower.

On the index, out of a total of 32 shares traded on the exchange, shares of 29 companies declined, while shares of 2 companies rose.

Elsewhere, the Abu Dhabi Securities Market General Index ended 2.01 per cent lower at 4,582.57. Out of a total of 24 companies, shares of 2 companies rose, while 22 of them declined and the other 7 remained steady.

The Tadawul All Share Index ended more than 2 per cent lower, while the Kuwait Stock Exchange Index also ended 1.95 per cent lower. The Muscat Securities MSM 30 index ended 3.26 per cent lower and the Qatar index ended 2.31 per cent weaker.