Dubai index posts record daily gains, best performer in the world

18/12/2014 20:59 AST

Reassuring statements from the top UAE and Saudi officials propelled UAE and other GCC markets on Thursday. The Dubai index posted record one day gains, rebounding the most in the world amid stability in crude oil prices.

The Dubai index ended 12.98 per cent at 3,426.70, after gaining as much as 13.2 earlier in the session. The index was the best performing market among more than 90 gauges tracked by Bloomberg globally.

“The continuation of fiscal spending in the new fiscal year was the big catalyst for the up move. We’d another good news that US Federal Reserve would keep the rates low for a longer period. People saw good valuations and saw a little of stability in crude oil. These were the positive factors that led the market go up,” Sanyalaksna Manibhandu, manager of research, National Bank of Abu Dhabi Securities told Gulf News.

Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf said on Wednesday that his government would continue spending strongly on development projects and social benefits in its 2015 budget, expected to be announced on Monday. UAE, Kuwaiti and Qatari officials have made similar statements in recent days.

“It’s do with global mood as well, after we saw what happened to Russia a few days ago. People were scared of a domino effect on emerging markets,” said Sebastien Henin, head of asset management at The National Investor.

“The market was oversold in the past sessions. We’d seen a fall beyond fundamentals, and technically the market was oversold, so we shouldn’t be surprised with this rebound,” said Henin.

Blue chip companies like Emaar Properties, Emaar Malls Group, Union Properties, Arabtec, Dubai Islamic Bank also rose about 15 per cent in trade after registering substantial losses in the previous sessions.

In Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index ended 6.70 per cent to be at 4,365.19.

Elsewhere, Saudi’s Tadawul All Share index (Tasi) ended 8.92 per cent at 8,320.55. The Muscat Securities MSM 30 Index closed 3.69 per cent higher. The Kuwait Stock Exchange end 1.87 per cent higher.

Gulf News