The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) closed almost flat yesterday despite relatively high volatility in the market, with leading active stocks in the real estate sector moving in a wide gap.

The ADX index added 3.05 points, or 0.10 per cent, to close at 295.85 points after it witnessed rare sharp fluctuations during the session.

Aldar moved in a wide range between Dh5.28 and Dh5.45 before it closed 1.7 per cent higher at Dh5.38. Sorouh also fluctuated between Dh3.20 and Dh3.36 before closing slightly lower at Dh3.28.

Turnover advanced slightly yesterday, with 128.5 million shares worth Dh300.3 million changing hands. Real estate and energy stocks continued dominating most of the turnover.

However, Bank of Sharjah (BoS) witnessed high trading yesterday and the stock was the top active by both volumes and value. More than 45 million shares of the BoS stock changed hands in six transactions. The stock advanced by 1.05 per cent to end the session at Dh1.99.

Banking sector heavyweights NBAD and FGB advanced by 1.92 and 0.27 per cent respectively. ADCB slowed down its rally of the previous three sessions, as the stock advanced only 0.94 per cent to close at Dh2.14.

"The ADX is facing an indecisive situation between bulls and bears," said Amjad Bakir, VIP sales trader at Direct Broker for Financial Services.

He also projected the leading active stocks, Aldar and Sorouh, to advance in the next few sessions.

"Aldar can rally to Dh 5.55 while Sorouh looks good to hit Dh3.45."

Bakir said the ADX index was still in a general bullish trend as long as it is above its support area of 2875 points.

"We expect the market to bounce up to its resistance level of 2975 points," he said.

Humam Al Shamaa, financial consultant at Al Fajr Securities, said he expected the market to remain in correlation with global markets at lower levels compared with the DFM.

"Panic selling continues on some active stocks, which is leading to more pressure in the markets. However, the ADX has stabilised on renewed buying interest over select stocks. This is an encouraging sign for greater stabilisation in the market," he added.

Energy stocks in the ADX moved in a narrow range yesterday despite oil prices advancing in global markets.

Taqa recorded a slight advance of 0.72 per cent to close at Dh1.40 amid contradicting reports on the companys potential partnership with Toshiba Corp to make a joint bid for the power transmission and distribution business of Areva, worth around $5.5 billion.

FGB on buyback spree

Continuing its buyback spree, First Gulf Bank (FGB) yesterday announced it bought back 89,598 of its shares on Tuesday at an average price of Dh18.35. The stock advanced to Dh18.45 yesterday.

The total number of shares bought back reached almost 20.82 million, the bank said.

It can buy back an additional 116.68 million shares, according to the Securities and Commodities Authoritys approval for the buyback programme.