Record Dubai budget fails to impress local stock market traders

12/12/2017 07:39 AST

Dubai index traded marginally higher on Monday, as traders failed to price in the record budget, which was focused on Expo 2020.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index witnessed unimpressive performance by closing 0.55 per cent higher at 3,414.05, a day after the Dubai government approved an expenditure of Dh56.6 billion with 43 per cent focused on Expo 2020.

“People are not pricing it in the budget news, because there is too much of noise about seasonal uncertainty and the geo-politics that is going on,” Sanyalaksna Manibhandu, head of research, First Abu Dhabi Bank Securities said.

Trading was focused on select stocks in Dubai like Dubai Investments, and Amanat. Dubai Investments closed 5.22 per cent higher at Dh2.42, and was the second most active stock in trade, contributing to 12 per cent of the total traded value. Amanat was the most actively traded on Dubai bourse, with a contribution of 36 per cent of the total traded value of Dh500 million.

Gulf Finance House rose 0.63 per cent higher at Dh1.60. Emaar Properties closed 0.13 per cent higher at Dh7.70.

Trend

Traded value remained low with shares worth Dh500 million changing hands, a trend that the market has witnessed as the index moved sideways.

“Market these days is only full of daily speculators and no liquidity to take the market higher, everyday is a different stock and by end of session stocks fall back to where it opened, think this trend will continue for the next period,” Hisham Khairy, head of institutional trading at Menacorp said.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange general index closed more than a per cent higher helped by buying in etisalat.

The ADX index closed 1.43 per cent higher at 4,356.30. Etisalat closed 0.5 per cent higher at Dh17.1. Elsewhere in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index closed 0.62 per cent lower at 7,100.46. The Qatar exchange index closed at 7,923.07, up 1.2 per cent.

Gulfnews