Dubai: Shares of Gulf Finance House (GFH) and Shuaa were resilient on Tuesday after the news on possible merger of both entities, even as the undercurrent remained strong in GFH despite price adjustments for a bonus as well as dividend.
GFH closed 0.73 per cent lower at Dh2.73, after rising 10 per cent since the past five sessions till Monday. Shuaa closed more than 4 per cent lower at Dh1.85, after gaining 13.5 per cent in the past 5 sessions.
“Markets were speculating this move from GFH, and the news is already in the price. All of these people are trading short-term in specific stocks like Shuaa, and Arabtec and Drake and Scull,” said Sanyalaksna Manibhandu, director Research, National Bank of Abu Dhabi Securities.
“The markets are going up and down in a narrow range. And there is no pattern yet,” Manibhandu said.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index closed 0.93 per cent lower at 3,468.58.
“The FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] meeting is influencing local market and also the outlook for crude is looking weak, as the market is saying that rebalancing is not happening. Inventories are still going up and US is producing more,” said Manibhandu.
In other stocks, Du closed 0.50 per cent lower at Dh6.02. Amanat closed 0.88 per cent higher at Dh1.14. Emaar Properties closed 0.14 per cent lower at Dh7.25.
In Abu Dhabi, the general index closed 0.13 per cent higher at 4,387.96. First Gulf Bank closed 1.66 per cent higher at Dh12.25. National Bank of Abu Dhabi closed 1 per cent lower at Dh9.9.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index closed 0.04 per cent higher at 6,790.71. The parallel market index closed 0.53 per cent higher at 5,387.03. The Qatar stock exchange index closed 0.46 per cent lower at 10,314.20.
Traders will tread cautiously ahead of a Fed rate hike.
“Anybody who trades now should be a short term trader, and those who don’t like risk should wait. They’ll have to wait for interest rate hikes, outlook to take a decision,” said Manibhandu.
