29/09/2015 06:05 AST
With the Saudi equity market still closed for the Eid Al Adha holiday and a mood of uncertainty among investors, the UAE’s markets saw weak liquidity on Monday as the indexes moved less than one per cent.
The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) index fell 0.84 per cent to reach 3,582.38, whereas the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) rose 0.48 per cent to end the day’s trade at 4,516.34, with Dh254.8 million traded in each market.
Sebastien Henin, head of asset management at The National Investor, said that a lack of news flow and a lack of catalysts have been keeping investors away from the markets.
“I would say there’s a lack of interest for the market. What’s interesting was to see that the Abu Dhabi market was up when at the same time the Dubai index was down, which shows that there is no clear trend in the markets. Investors are waiting for a signal to go one way or the other,” he said.
Henin added that he expected markets to be relatively stable within the next few weeks.
On Thursday, Janet Yellen, chair of the US Federal Reserve, said that she expected interest rates in the US to be hiked before the end of this year, adding that she expected inflation rates to rise to the 2 per cent target.
The announcement about improved economic conditions in the US provided a temporary boost for western equity markets. However, TNI’s Henin told Gulf News he did not expect the comments to have much of an impact in the UAE’s markets.
“It’s a good piece of news; at least we have some clarity and we know that the Fed will act before the end of the year, but it will be very gradual. That’s why we haven’t seen much of an impact in our markets. The main risk is that this interest rate increase could create volatility across emerging markets,” he said.
On the DFM, most of the market’s powerhouses were down as Emaar fell 1.09 per cent, Damac Properties slid 0.64 per cent, Dubai Islamic Bank ended 0.73 per cent lower, Amlak dropped 2.91 per cent and Arabtec declined 0.56 per cent.
Dubai Ports World went up 2.41 per cent, however.
In the capital, Abu Dhabi Ship Building topped the gainers’ list with a 7.28 per cent increase, followed by Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) with 5.88 per cent, Union Cement Co. with 5.45 per cent, Dana Gas with 3.7 per cent, and Ras Al Khaimah Cement Company with 3.53 per cent.
Of the 34 stocks traded on DFM, 20 went down, nine went up and five remained unchanged. Of the 31 stocks traded on ADX, 10 declined, 14 advanced and seven remained flat.
Gulfnews
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