Dubai: Drake and Scull (DSI) shares extended gains for another day on Thursday, spurring trading activity again on Dubai bourse.

DSI closed 4 per cent higher at Dh1.71, after hitting an upper circuit in the previous session. The stock has been witnessing interest ever since Tabarak Investment was allotted 500 million new shares or 5.54 per cent in DSI as part of the restructuring process on October 3.

“The completion of the restructuring in DSI in form of capital reduction, has renewed investor optimism in the broader market,” said Vrajesh Bhandari, Portfolio Manager, Asset Management at Al Mal Capital. On Wednesday, after DSI hit an upper circuit, traders swiftly bought property majors and contractors like Arabtec, Damac among others, spurring volumes in an otherwise low volumes trade. Traded value jumped to Dh398 million from Dh100 million a few days ago.

“Further as we go in to the fourth quarter of the year, investors generally deploy further cash anticipating a year-end rally,” Bhandari said. Gulf Finance House closed less than a per cent higher at Dh1.63, while Union properties closed 0.92 per cent higher at Dh0.841.

“UPP tried to break to the upside with rest of the market but seems a seller is pressuring the stock on purpose having decent offers on screen scaring away buyers, stock tried to break its declining trend line but couldn’t sustain the move and closed below,” said Hisham Khairy, Head of Institutional Trading, at Menacorp.

The Dubai Financial Market General index closed 3,591.10, down 0.21 per cent.

“We continue to see further improvements. The Dubai index could see some resistance now around the 3,640, a break above its recent high 3,668 would be very positive,” Khairy said.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange general index closed 0.44 per cent lower at 4,414.16. First Abu Dhabi Bank, which closed 1.46 per cent lower at Dh10.15, saw a record 111.69 million shares traded in a bulk deal. United Arab Bank closed 5.67 per cent higher at Dh2.05 while Agthia closed 2.75 per cent higher at Dh5.23.

Details

Going ahead, traders will continue to look at details of the initial public offering of Emaar Properties unit and the upcoming third quarter results.

“The biggest factor driving sentiment continues to be the upcoming IPO of Emaar’s Dubai property unit, which could be valued up to $6 billion [Dh22 billion],” Bhandari said. Emaar Properties closed 0.69 per cent lower at Dh8.58.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index was 0.4 per cent lower at 7,251.83. The Qatar exchange index closed 0.26 per cent lower at 8,132.05.