Dubai: One day after a historic decline, US stock markets opened on Tuesday with a series of volatile swings. The Dow Jones index fell 500 points at the opening bell only to jump 400 points into positive territory less than an hour later. The market continued to oscillate between positive and negative territory.
The previous day’s drop, with included a intraday loss of nearly 1,600 points, which marked its single biggest loss ever, dragged global markets down for most of the day. Japanese stocks were down more than 4 per cent, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 5 per cent. India’s Sensex index was down 1.6 per cent.
“The drop gave markets a breather after a one way rally so far, but the movement in positive and negative indicates the uncertainty in the minds of traders. We are yet to see who will get an upper hand in this market will it be bulls or bears,” Nadi Bargouti, managing director and head of asset management at Emirates Investment Bank told Gulf News.
However, going forward, fund managers said they will wait for signs of stability before buying.
“We would tread carefully and start preparing to re-enter the market as they stabilise. Technically the market is getting more attractive. We see the recent retracement as healthy, given the strong run in equity markets last year,” Bargouti said.
In other asset classes, bonds and commodities prices were more or less stable.
International gold was down 0.65 per cent at $1,331.01 an ounce, while Brent crude was down 0.37 per cent to $67.37 per barrel.
Meanwhile, UAE indices fell in line with their global peers.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index closed 1.53 per cent lower at 3,326.47. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange general index closed 0.9 per cent lower at 4,540.85.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index closed 1.6 per cent lower at 7,466.33.
