Dubai: The main index on the Dubai bourse, Dubai Financial Market, fell over 1 per cent, with heavyweights across the board trading in the red on the last working day of the month.
The DFM index dropped 1.2 per cent higher at 2,678.7 points, while Abu Dhabi’s ADX slipped 0.3 per cent at 5,030 points.
A fresh batch of negative news awaited global investors, after relations between the United States and China deteriorated to a new low. US President Donald Trump passed a law backing Hong Kong protesters, provoking China’s ire and threatening to derail an interim trade deal between the world’s top two economies.
With US markets closed for Thanksgiving, Asian shares excluding Japan, Japan’s Nikkei, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Shanghai blue chips all closed weaker. A pan-European index opened 0.2 per cent lower, led by trade-sensitive sectors such as automotive and tech. This kept MSCI’s world equity index flat.
“Going forward, global markets will remain sensitive to trade-related headlines, while closely monitoring the economic indicators to gauge the impact of measures undertaken by the global Central Banks,” analysts at Allied Investment Partners PJSC wrote in a report.
“On the regional front, the equity markets will continue to take cues from global markets due to lack of developments within the domestic markets,” the analysts added.
In Dubai, top lender Emirates NBD dropped 2.5 per cent and Dubai Islamic Bank slipped 1 per cent, with the banking benchmark trading 1.7 per cent lower. Emirates NBD has cut between 400 and 500 jobs since October, Reuters reported citing sources.
Dubai real estate giant Emaar Properties fell 0.5 per cent, pushing its peers’ index down 0.8 per cent.
In Abu Dhabi, market heavyweight First Abu Dhabi Bank added 0.3 per cent and telecoms firm Etisalat gained 0.4 per cent.
At the end of November, DFM in Dubai recorded a monthly decline of over 2 per cent, while ADX in Abu Dhabi slipped a little over 1 per cent.
