Business | Markets
UAE markets decline slightly on low volumes
But overall in April the Dubai and Abu Dhabi indices post healthy gains of 7.20% and 9.49% respectively.
- By Gaurav Ghose, Financial Features Editor
- Published: 00:45 May 1, 2008
Dubai: It's typical for most of the brokerages and some of the banks at the end of the month to close both their margin positions and their accounts without credit. And that, say analysts, has been reflected in the past few days when the bourses in the UAE saw marginal declines.
But overall for April the Dubai Financial Market General Index (DFMGI) and Abu Dhabi Securities Market Index (ADSMI) measures gained 7.20 per cent and 9.49 per cent respectively.
The Dubai and Abu Dhabi markets fell slightly yesterday, although it was the third straight day for the latter, which ended the day .04 per cent down at 4,988.86.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM) Index is so far 0.5 per cent down this week.
But of the 42 traded stocks on ADSM, 19 advanced, 16 declined and seven remained unchanged.
Ras Al Khaimah Properties was the highest traded stock in terms of volume, although it tumbled 0.89 per cent to close at Dh2.19. Dana Gas was next, up one per cent and closing at Dh2.03. Encouraged by a six-fold first quarter net income increase to Dh397 million, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) rose 5.2 per cent to Dh3.45, its biggest one day share gain since January 23,
"It's a scenario where traders are not totally liquidating their entire positions," says Sherif Abdul Khalek, manager, institutional sales, Al-Futtaim HC Securities. "Traders are closing some positions, and foreigners also have been slowing down their trade in the last three or four days. And this appears in the volume as well. The average volume in the last few days is a bit lower than what it was at the beginning of the month, for example. In Dubai average volume, for example, was in the 1.5 to two billion but now we are getting about one to 1.2 billion. "
The DFMGI lost 0.24 per cent to 5,737.72. Although the materials sector led the losers, declining 1.32 per cent, the banking sector lost 0.62 per cent with shares of big names such as Emirates NBD and Dubai Islamic Bank losing 1.21 per cent and 1.26 per cent, respectively.
Emaar was the most active stock, turning over Dh135.7 million to close at Dh11.50. However, it was Mazaya which jumped the highest, 15 per cent, to close at Dh11.50. Turning round after three days of decline, Gulf Navigation ended the day 1.91 per cent up to Dh1.60.
Similar to ADSM, the overall decline of DFMGI stands in contrast to the number of stocks that advanced and declined. Of the 26 traded stocks, 14 went up, seven went down and five remained unchanged.
Khalek expects the markets to pick up again in the next few days.
"I guess the Dubai market will try to test the 6,000-mark and Abu Dhabi the 5,000-mark," he said.
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