21/04/2014 07:53 AST
Dubai’s benchmark index rose 1.70 per cent on Sunday to end at 4,843.35, marking the biggest jump in two weeks, while the ADX Securities Index dropped 0.33 per cent to end at 5,139.75.
Marwan Shurrab, fund manager and head of trading at Vision Investments & Holdings, attributed the jump in DFM stocks to improved political news on the regional and the international front.
“We had news coming out to ease the political drift between Russia and [political] powers in Europe and the US over the weekend, which [affected] international markets. We had also good comments coming out from GCC officials with respect to the ambassadors’ situation between GCC countries, so all this strong sentiment helped revive interest from investors,” Shurrab said.
He added that investors were also motivated by the anticipation of strong figures for companies’ performance during the first quarter of 2014.
Discussing trade on ADX, Shurrab said that most the blue chips such as Aldar Properties, and Waha Capital, performed well, showing an increase in value. However, the general index dropped due to illiquid stocks, which lost some ground.
With many international markets being closed due to Easter holidays, sentiment in the UAE was mostly positive, carrying on from last week’s performance.
As for market projection, Shurrab said, “We have positive expectations for market performance over 2014 mainly driven by a couple of catalysts. [Morgan Stanley’s] upgrade is the main catalyst. Obviously, strong numbers from companies is another catalyst.”
An upgrade to emerging from frontier market status by index provider, Morgan Stanley, for the UAE and Qatar is due to take effect on May 14. The reclassification may put Dubai’s Emaar Properties into the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index, and lift trading as the countries’ bourses are added to those tracked by investors managing more than $8 trillion in assets.
Dubai’s benchmark, which more than doubled last year, has advanced 44 per cent in 2014 to beat 92 indexes from around the world tracked by Bloomberg.
In Abu Dhabi, Aldar Properties registered the most increase on Sunday with a 26 per cent gain in volume, while Waha Capital went up 3.58 per cent, and Dana Gas rose 2.25 per cent. However, RAK Properties dropped 2.08 per cent in volume.
Dubai Investment ended with the most change in value in DFM as it rose 5.05 per cent. Arabtec also jumped 4.29 per cent, while Deyaar Development added 3.77 per cent. Emaar, however, declined 0.49 per cent but maintained its status as one of the most expensive stocks with a price of Dh10.20 per share.
Of the 31 stocks traded on DFM, 15 declined, 14 advanced, and two remained unchanged. On the ADX, of the 32 traded stocks, 16 went down, 12 advanced, and four remained flat.
Gulf News
Please wait...
