Business | Markets

Real estate drives Dubai index down as Arab stocks slump for second day

Arab stock markets fell on Thursday for a second day, with Gulf shares ending a mixed week.

  • Staff Report
  • Published: 15:47 October 16, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
  • The Dubai Financial Market Index finished the week's final day of trading down 6.5 per cent at 3,204.11 points.

Dubai: Arab stock markets fell on Thursday for a second day, with Gulf shares ending a mixed week.

The Dubai Financial Market Index finished the week's final day of trading down 6.5 per cent at 3,204.11 points.

Real estate developer Emaar shed 9.7 per cent on Thursday, while the real estate sector as a whole dropped 9.2 per cent.

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange saw its index drop 4.5 per cent to 3,366.72 points. The real estate sector shed 9.5 per cent.

The Abu Dhabi market, however, ended the week up five per cent. The Kuwait Stock Exchange, the second-largest Arab bourse, dropped 1.5 per cent to 11,543.70 points on the day and shed three per cent from a week earlier.

The Doha Securities Market closed 3.6 per cent down from Wednesday at 7,803.97 points, below the 8,000-point barrier.

The smaller Muscat Securities Market lost 5.7 per cent for the day while Bahrain Stock Exchange dropped 1.2 per cent on Thursday.

The Saudi market, where trading ends on Wednesday, gained more than 11 per cent for the week.

The Arab region's largest exchange recovered more than 55 billion dollars of capitalisation over three days to swell its value to 360 billion dollars.

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