Dubai: About 80 per cent of the companies listed on UAE bourses have not declared their 2018 results, according to available data, even as they scrambled to meet the cut-off date.
Traders opted to sell shares before results announcement in anticipation of worse than expected top and bottom line as against the previous trend to buy in anticipation of good numbers.
“It doesn’t really matter which day they choose to publish, giving investors more time to speculate over possibly bad results does more damage than good,” Essam Kassabieh, Senior Financial Analyst – Research Department at Menacorp, told Gulf News.
The real estate sector has already shown some bad performance during the nine months financials and we would expect that to persist over the full year of 2018, nothing has changed since then.
Most companies have their board meetings in the next three days. Companies have time until February 15 to publish their unaudited results, after which the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange have to submit a report on companies that have missed their deadline. The companies have 90 days from the end of the quarter to declare their audited results, and failure to do results in suspension of trading in their shares.
The impact has been adverse due to the results announcements or the delay.
Gulf Finance House tumbled nearly 10 per cent in trade after lower than expected dividend announcement. Dubai Investments has been on a decline witnessing its lowest level in 52 weeks, losing 17 per cent in the past four sessions after the company reported 50 per cent decline in net profit of 2018 because of loss in investment properties and financial investments, which have been battered due to current market conditions. This revelation was enough for traders to doubt the health of the real estate sector,
10 %
tumble in trade for Gulf Finance House“The real estate sector has already shown some bad performance during the nine months financials and we would expect that to persist over the full year of 2018, nothing has changed since then; however the speculation over Emaar Group’s results is affecting the market especially when coupled with the halt of a mega development such as Six Flags which reflects poorly on the sector,” Kassabieh said.
Dubai Entertainments earlier halted plans to open a Six Flags theme park due to funding issues. Dubai Entertainment shares have been losing ground, and has shed 58 per cent in value in the past one year.
Even Emaar Properties, which has the highest weightage on the index, has been also falling. Emaar Properties shares has lost 50 per cent from its high of Dh8.21 seen in mid-September 2017.
“I doubt Emaar’s results can lift the market on their own especially with the anticipated results from Damac and Union Properties and Dubai Entertainments,” Kassabieh said.
Only banks such as First Abu Dhabi Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD have been able to register gains.
“Banks have done well; however, lower than expected dividend yields and a slower loan book growth rate than deposit does show that banks are being cautious especially of real estate and related assets,” Kassabieh said.
FAB has gained 37 per cent in the past one year. ADCB closed 36 per cent since February last year, while Emirates NBD has gained a fourth in the last one year.
