Markets cheer Al Saleh comment
DFM benchmark climbs as much as 7% on the back of assurance and Emaar statement
Abu Dhabi : UAE markets rebounded yesterday on assurances that Dubai will not default on its debt obligations, while Emaar shareholders cheered its board decision rejecting a merger move with Dubai Holding.
The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) index rebounded sharply yesterday, gaining as much as 7 per cent.
Abdul Rahman Al Saleh, the Director-General of the Department of Finance, told a conference, "It is quite surprising that we are now seeing things like this said in the world's media about Dubai.
"It was a misunderstanding of the status of Dubai, which indeed is a centre of trade and economic activity, it was lack of knowledge of how much debt was the subject of the announcement and how it is related to the government debt. The reactions were caused by asymmetric information of the situation in Dubai," he said.
He said Dubai has positioned itself as a global centre of modernity, high finance and high tech projects, education and culture, from universities to sports, art galleries and museums.
Land of opportunity
"Dubai has become a land of economic opportunities and in a very short time attracted international attention and investments Brand Dubai has been built on the basis of being a global business centre, perfectly located and commercially astute," he said. The DFM index rose to 1,640.76, with Emaar rising 14.84 per cent to Dh2.94.
"The strong rebound also came on the back of an announcement that Emaar will not be merging with the other government-related real estate companies," Rami Sidani, Head of Investments-Middle East & North Africa at Schroder Investment Management Limited told Gulf News.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange general index rose 1.43 per cent yesterday.
"The Abu Dhabi market moved upward on the news from Dubai, there were no internal triggers," Vikram Shetty, Fund Administrator with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi Asset Management told Gulf News.
