Dubai: The Dubai index rose more than 1 per cent on Thursday, leading the gains in the region even as volumes jumped more than Dh1 billion.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index closed 1.44 per cent higher at 3,309.79, after gaining more than 2 per cent in the previous session.
Gulf Finance House closed 13.58 per cent higher at Dh1.84, and was the most active stock in trade. Shuaa Capital closed more than 12 per cent higher at Dh1.47. Volumes jumped to over Dh1.27 billion, compared to below the billion mark on Wednesday.
“The continuous speculation on some of the names like Shuaa, GFH, Gulf Navigation is attracting lots of interest by short term investors and bringing back some of the volumes to the market,” said Tariq Qaqish, Managing Director — Asset Management, at Al Mal Capital.
In other stocks, Emaar Properties closed 1.83 per cent higher at Dh6.67. HITS Telecom closed more than 12 per cent lower at Dh0.533.
In Abu Dhabi, the general index closed almost unchanged at 4,292.08. Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. closed 9.09 per cent lower at Dh0.50, while etisalat closed less than a per cent down at Dh17.95.
Unreasonable valuations:
“Some of those stocks have more than doubled their prices in a very short time. For investors who are looking at fundamentals, some of those stocks are trading at unreasonable valuations,” said Qaqish.
Gulf Finance House, Shuaa Capital have jumped more than 200 per cent since the start of the year, compared to 5 per cent gains on Dubai index.
Going ahead, markets would turn their focus on Opec meet and then the Federal Reserve meeting in December.
“As far as Opec is concerned, any cut in production will boost oil prices and therefore Gulf stocks. At the same time, any interest rate increase by the Fed could offset some of the positive news from Opec decision and will pressure on stock markets,” Qaqish said.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index closed 0.28 per cent lower at 6.628.88. The Qatar exchange index closed 0.34 per cent higher at 9.774.98.
