Dubai: The Dubai bourse’s main index inched up on Thursday after falling nearly 4 per cent over the past three trade sessions. The index ended at 2,821, closing 0.22 per cent higher on the last trade session of the first half of 2018.

Drake and Scull International (DSI) accounted for over a third of the Dh357 million traded on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), with the contractor’s share prices rebounding slightly after falling 30 per cent in the past three trade sessions alone.

DSI share prices ended 3.29 per cent higher at 0.753 fils as it reiterated in a statement that there is no material information affecting stock prices, saying it delivered a case for alleged violations by its previous management to the designated authorities and will subsequently declare the value of the required claims from former managers. It added that the share price performance over the past few sessions, when prices dropped by 10 per cent a day, was due to margin calls by financial institutions.

DSI said these margin calls triggered selling activity by other investors.

“That [statement] alone gave the market a breather from what we’ve been seeing over the past few days where we’ve been seeing limit-downs on a daily basis, impacting the market sentiment overall,” said Marwan Shurrab, head of high net worth and retail equity brokerage, Al Ramz.

Away from DSI, the DFM index’s performance on Thursday brings the decline for this week to 3.66 per cent as concerns on companies’ exposure to embattled Abraaj Group and global trade tensions led to strong selling activity across the board. The DFM index is currently at its lowest level since late 2015, and is down around 16.3 per cent year-to-date, according to Bloomberg data.

Analysts said the slump in the market was led by various factors including international investors pulling funds out of emerging markets as the US dollar gets stronger and the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates. More locally, concerns around corporate governance and a lack of transparency have weighed the DFM index down.

“The risks are still there, and I think the market understands the risks, but also understands that pricing right now for certain assets is trading at a severe discount to price-to-book and to real valuations,” Shurrab said.

“At the end of the day, it is an opportunity for investment but it lacks the major catalyst for real reversal in terms of positive direction.”

On DFM, Emaar inched up 0.2 per cent, while Dubai Islamic Bank fell 0.2 per cent, as Gulf Navigation ended 3.23 per cent lower. Union Properties jumped 9.31 per cent after the company disclosed it has no exposure to Abraaj, which two weeks ago filed for provisional liquidity in the Cayman Islands.

In Abu Dhabi, the bourse’s main index rose 0.34 per cent to 4,560.03. The index has not suffered as much as Dubai’s, with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) general index up 3.67 per cent year-to-date, according to Bloomberg data.