Dubai: Most Gulf markets dropped in early trade on Sunday, mirroring a sell-off seen on Friday from their global counterparts after slower vaccine rollout in Europe stoked worries about the state of the world economy.
Property stocks disappoint
Dubai Financial Market traded 0.6 per cent lower, mainly dragged down by real estate stocks.
DAMAC Properties shed 2.9 per cent and the Emirate’s heavyweight developer Emaar Properties edged back 0.8 per cent as new coronavirus variants and patchy rollout of vaccines in parts of the world continue to weigh on global tourism recovery. Being a tourism and regional business hub, Dubai stands to lose from restricted global mobility keeping demand-side pressure on property and housing.
In Abu Dhabi, it was Financial stocks dragging down the index lower by 0.3 per cent. Heavyweight First Abu Dhabi Bank slipped 0.5 per cent, while Bank of Sharjah plunged 4.9 per cent to its sharpest single-day fall in more than two months.
Property stocks also fell with RAK Properties easing 1.1 per cent and Aldar Properties slipping 0.3 per cent.
Energy companies drag
Qatar’s main 20-stock index dropped 0.5 per cent with energy and banking stocks weighing the most. Qatar National Bank traded lower 0.8 per cent, while Qatar Fuel and Mesaieed Petrochemical lost more than 1 per cent each as slowing economic recovery worldwide goes on to squeeze energy demand.
Kuwait premier index edged up 0.2 per cent, supported by a 0.6 per cent rise in the stock of Kuwait Financial House, and as Ahli United Bank edged up 0.5 per cent.
Bounce back
Oman’s 30-company index rebounded 0.8 per cent. The index traded in red every session last week, posting deepest weekly losses since last April, mostly as banks saw heavy sell-offs after reporting their exposure to the defaulting firm Dervesh Group.
National Bank of Oman jumped 6.4 percent after plunging last week to a 15-year low. The bank had last week reported an exposure to Darvesh Group and its board of directors proposed no dividends to shareholders.
Bahrain slipped 0.1 per cent with GFH Financial Group shedding 1.2 per cent.
