Dubai: The main benchmark on the Dubai bourse ended marginally higher on Tuesday, as gains recorded by banking stocks were almost nulled by declines in the real estate sector.
The top index on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) edged up 0.1 per cent at 2,854.92 points in light trade, while the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) slipped 0.5 per cent to 5,184.53.
While real estate blue-chip Emaar Property slipped 0.2 per cent, top lender Emirates NBD rose 0.4 per cent and Dubai Islamic Bank edged up 0.2 per cent.
DFM’s real estate peer tracker fell 0.2 per cent, while lending stocks rose 0.2 per cent. This comes a day after the Dubai index snapped a seven-day winning streak as the index was dragged by losses of 0.7 per cent in both the banking and real estate sectors.
In Dubai, top gainers in the index on Tuesday included port operator DP World and logistics player Aramex, each rising 1.3 per cent. In Abu Dhabi, heavyweight Emirates Telecommunications retreated 0.2 per cent and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank was down 0.4 per cent.
Other major Gulf stock markets moved sideways after the IMF said the Middle East region will see slower growth in 2020 mainly due to rising geopolitical tensions in Iran, social unrest in Iraq and Lebanon and civil strife in Libya, Syria and Yemen.
Saudi’s benchmark index dropped 0.4 per cent with state-owned Saudi Aramco shedding 0.6 per cent. The IMF trimmed Saudi Arabia’s economic growth view to 1.9 per cent this year due to oil output cuts agreed with exporters, having previously forecast that GDP would grow 2.2 per cent.
