Markets continue to move slowly as DFM gains 0.1%

14/07/2014 06:38 AST

Both the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) indices continued to show slight movement on Sunday as the indices ended the day with very little change.

The DFM index went up 0.1 per cent to reach 4,579.76, while the ADX general index fell 0.13 per cent to reach 4,841.07.

Construction giant, Arabtec, also registered a slight change as share prices rose 0.95 per cent to reach Dh4.24.

Shares started the day at a price of Dh4.23, and almost immediately rose to Dh4.29 in the first few minutes of trade. However, this was followed by a gradual decline until the market closed, with lowest price of the day being Dh4.2.

The company gained 18.77 per cent last week alone.

Though Arabtec usually tops the market in terms of traded value, it was Gulf Finance House (GFH) that made up 25 per cent of the total value of trade on DFM on Sunday — the highest value of the day. GFH shares climbed 14.96 per cent.

Most powerhouses in Dubai ended the day with slight gains, too. Union Properties rose 0.53 per cent, Air Arabia inclined 1.45 per cent, but Gulf Navigation went up 11.19 per cent. However, Emaar fell 1.35 per cent.

As for the DFM index, it started the day with a steep incline from 4,573 to 4,623.09 in the first 15 minutes of trade. The rest of the day saw fluctuations, and a minimum of 4,564.27 at around 1pm.

Marwan Shurrab, fund manager and head of trading at Vision Investments & Holdings, commented on market performance saying, “As we saw the aggressive selling [last month], we saw a rebound, which a lot of people tried to participate in, especially in retail. Due to that, we’re seeing now a slow down again; it’s just the volatility that causing such a [slow] pattern.” Despite so, he expected the markets to show signs of strong trade soon as financial results for the second quarter of this year start to emerge.

“I think Q2 numbers will start to be in focus. People will start to position themselves in fundamental stories, and [invest in] stocks that will mark attractive yields by the end of the year, and try to benefit from what they’ve seen over the last couple of weeks of the weaknesses in the market,” Shurrab said.

Of the 31 stocks traded on DFM, 23 went up, six went down, and two remained unchanged. Of the 29 stocks traded on ADX, 13 advanced, 11 declined, and five remained flat.

Gulf News