Dubai: Banks may continue to come to the rescue of UAE bourses, which had been underperforming in the rest of regional markets, as they post better than expected fourth quarter results. The First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) has been the top performer as it continues to benefit from the merger between First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

The FAB scrip has gained more than 40 per cent in the last one year. “FAB can maintain being a major outperformer if it manages to meet the final promises it had made to investors, now that we will hear more about the IT system integration,” said Essam Kassabieh, Senior Financial Analyst — Research Department at Menacorp. “Their dividend policy should emerge now.”

40 %

Gain in FAB shares in the past one year

FAB on Thursday recorded a 10 per cent increase in net profit to Dh12 billion and declared a dividend of 74 fils per share, up 6 per cent year-on-year.

Other banks such as ADCB and UNB are also expected to see surges of their own. “Relative to its peers, UAE banks offer a healthy upside and we believe large cap banks to outperform small caps, owing to their superior asset quality,” Chiro Ghosh, manager — research at SICO Bank said.

37 %

Rise in ADCB share prices since January last year

Merger between Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), Union National Bank (UNB) and Al Hilal Bank also attracted buying in the shares of the first two. ADCB has gained 37 per cent since January last year, while UNB’s gains were 37.4 per cent.