Daman collaborates with equity research firm

Dubai: Daman Securities, brokerage arm of Daman Investments has announced its collaboration with an equity research firm designed to give its investors unbiased, in-depth coverage.

Chicago-based equity research firm, Morningstar will kick off by launching six reports, the first about the retail sector.

The first round of research will be available on January 18 and there will be another 27 reports driven by relative importance, released over the coming months.

This is the first entry into the Middle East market for Morningstar.

Shehab Gargash, chief executive of Daman Investments, said the UAE market was an increasingly important destination for fund managers.

Two of Daman's funds have been hit by the market crash but still managed to perform better than the market generally.

However, the third fund, the Daman Speculator Fund, launched in the summer 2008, is doing much better.

"The Dubai market has dropped by 72 per cent, the UAE market dropped by 57 per cent or so, I'm very pleased that the fund is up four per cent," Gargash said. All three funds have a maximum amount of Dh200 million each. Gargash said the funds are kept small so that people do not get stuck in a position they can't get out of.

On the future of the region's economy, Gargash said he was cautious.

"I said then [summer 2008] that I was cautiously optimistic.

"Now, I'm a little more cautious than optimistic," Gargash said.