Dubai: The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) general index closed more than half a per cent lower on Monday as renewed selling prevented it from breaching a key resistance level.
The index eased 0.56 per cent to close at 2,774.62 yesterday. Prior to this, the index failed to breach the key level of 2,850 five consecutive times in September.
“The index may extend the drop to 2,727/2,668 levels in the near-term as the trend-line resistance of 2,850 holds strong,” Shiv Prakash, an associate vice-president at First Abu Dhabi Bank Securities (FABS), said.
Gulf Finance House was down 1.44 per cent to close at Dh1.37 but Salama ended the day 2.5 per cent higher at Dh0.615.
Shuaa, which has been witnessing strong volumes, closed 1.9 per cent higher at Dh1.07.
“Shuaa may gradually gain momentum towards the immediate resistance at Dh1.09, and then a break over Dh1.09 may trigger fresh buying towards the resistance at Dh1.20/1.30 in the near term,” Prakash said. A total of 16 million shares changed hands in Shuaa, adding to last week’s 37 million shares.
Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) general index closed 0.26 per cent higher at 5,003.38. The index may touch the 5,200 level in the medium term, Prakash said.
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) closed 0.16 per cent higher at Dh14.78 while etisalat fell by a similar margin to close at Dh16.6.
“We expect downwards pressure on [a] select few [stocks] and we expect it to resume as weak volumes persist and global economic instability shakes markets,” Issam Kassabieh, a senior Menacorp analyst, said.
Elsewhere in the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index gained 0.58 per cent to close at 7,939.17.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp advanced 0.16 per cent to close higher at 124 Saudi riyals, while Alinma Bank was up 0.37 per cent to end the day at 21.52 riyals.
The Muscat MSM 30 index closed 0.24 per cent lower at 4,505.35 while the Qatar Exchange index slipped 0.28 per cent to close lower at 9,819.74.
