Year-end cannot come soon enough as market slows

Dubai: Traders in the UAE stock exchanges are now counting down the days to the year-end with little direction being offered either way.

Of course the big news of the day yesterday was the announcement that Dubai Financial Market (DFM) will itself be listed as a publicly traded entity, which will no doubt have managers at the bourse in Abu Dhabi wondering whether or not they should do the same.

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM) saw volume trail off in the last few sessions before the end of the year.

The ADSM General Index (ADI) witnessed just 39.8 million shares being exchanged in 3,789 deals.

Tuesday's gains in the hotels index were pretty much wiped out with the sector losing 5.63 per cent of its value yesterday.

Energy firm, DanaGas, was the most actively traded stock in the capital, with 8.1 million shares on the move. The market newcomer's shares ended the session lower, to close at Dh4.36.

The bulk of other deals in Abu Dhabi were centred around real estate companies, such as Sorouh Real Estate and RAK Properties, which traded around seven million shares apiece, but both ended lower at Dh5.94 and Dh3.94, respectively.

In Dubai, the DFM General Index (DSI) edged just above the waterline, to close 0.33 per cent higher at 1,010.39 on volume of 68.2 million shares.