Abu Dhabi: The UAE bourses ended the week in the red with the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) index falling 0.99 per cent on Thursday to reach 5,120.75 on the back of negative performance by market blue chips. This brings the total gains this week to 3.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) general index went down 0.76 per cent to reach 5,141.18, bringing the total gain of the week to 1.39 per cent.

In Dubai, Arabtec share prices remained flat at Dh4.78, though the real estate developer topped the market in terms of value, accounting for 28 per cent of the total value on DFM.

While Deyaar Developments also remained unchanged, other powerhouses saw a drop in share prices. Emaar fell 1.3 per cent to reach a share price of Dh11.4, ending the week with a total increase of 11.17 per cent.

Union Properties also slid 2.19 per cent, Dubai Investments Co. went down 1.79 per cent, and DFM share prices declined 1.84 per cent.

In the capital, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank topped the gainers’ list with a 2.51 per cent change, followed by Sudan Telecommunications Co. (Sudatel) with 0.96 per cent, United National Bank with 0.86 per cent, and Aldar Properties with 0.24 per cent.

Saleem Khokhar, head of equities at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s asset management group, attributed the drop in markets to profit-taking activity following the increase in prices over the week. “The stocks that had rallied a fair bit during the week are the ones which were going down, so it does signify profit-taking to me from market participants. The [stocks] that are flat really weren’t as strong in terms of their performances as the other stocks. It’s a little bit of trimming of positions that I suspect is happening,” he said.

Khokhar added that it was a similar scenario in Abu Dhabi whereby investors were selling stocks that had registered gains throughout the past few days.

As for the outlook, he said, “It’s pretty positive. We had good second quarter numbers, and at the moment, when we look at our assessment of the underlying health of many of the blue chips, we feel that there is some pretty good upside potential in a lot of the names.”

Of the 32 stocks traded on DFM, 21 went down, seven went up, and four remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks traded on ADX, 20 declined, five advanced, and five remained flat.