Dubai index declines 1.5% amid low trading volume

Dubai: A big fall in Saudi Arabia's stock market on Saturday had a negative impact on the UAE markets on the first day of the week on Sunday.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index declined for the second consecutive day, going down 1.5 per cent to close at 5,741.6.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Market Index was marginally down 0.6 per cent at 5,006.2.

"With worries in Iran and Lebanon, the Saudi Tadawul Index closed at negative 2.75 per cent and any significant movement in the largest market of the GCC worries retail investors here, " said Moosa Haddad, Head of Trade, Discretionary Mandate, National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

The Tadawul recovered on Sunday to close 2.02 per cent up at 9,695.29.

Of the 24 stocks which traded on DFM, 21 declined and three advanced. Emaar went down 2.11 per cent to Dh11.60. Dubai Financial Market declined 2.3 per cent to Dh 5.94.

Air Arabia declined 0.5 per cent to Dh2.04. It later announced higher profits.

Of the 41 traded stocks on Abu Dhabi, 24 declined and 12 advanced, with five remaining flat. The energy and telecom sectors lost the most declining 1.73 per cent and 1.15 per cent respectively.

etisalat was down 1.15 per cent to Dh21.40. Aabar Energy and Abu Dhabi National Energy (Taqa) lost 2.27 per cent and 2.23 per cent respectively.

But it was not just the Saudi Arabia factor that led the two local benchmarks to head south.

"Basically volumes were low in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi," Haddad added.

"Every single Sunday we are seeing low volumes as foreigners are away on holiday. It is mainly retail investors who are trading."

While the Dubai market traded volumes of 271.6 million shares, Abu Dhabi was even lower at 125.2 million.