Vijay Valecha, Special to Gulf News
UAE equities traded in the red on Thursday, counter to movements by global stock markets, with DFM dropping 0.15 per cent and ADX by 0.52 per cent.
But there were gains for Arabtec, powered by the appointment of Waleed Ahmed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi as its new chairman. Al Muhairi also serves as Mubadala’s deputy group CEO and CEO of its alternative investments & infrastructure platform.
Fully discounted the bad news
But there were declines for Emirates NBD after an analyst report that predicted a fall in profits for Middle Eastern banks. The fact is that Emirates NBD’s share price is now almost 37 per cent below the 12-month highs and seems to have discounted the worst-case scenario.
The Dubai economy seems to be in gradual recovery, as evidenced by the closing of the field hospital at Dubai World Trade Centre after the last COVID-19 patient there was cured.
In an interview, Helal Al Marri, director-general of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing said that Dubai was expecting an aggressive recovery in tourism by year-end, which should be good for hospitality sector stocks.
Taqa's red hot
On ADX, Abu Dhabi National Energy company (Taqa) rallied 4.32 per cent for the day. The share price has rallied by almost 150 per cent from its lows and it’s market cap currently at Dh 111.42 billion. The recent positivity is spurred by the financial closing for the Fujairah F3 project, valued at Dh4.2 billion.
Julphar shares, however, declined 4.46 per cent as it witnessed profit booking after a strong gain on Wednesday.
- Vijay Valecha is Chief Investment Officer at Century Financial.
