UAE shares sink to 15-week low; Emaar closes below Dh10

Both the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) general index and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) general index closed well in the red on Thursday, the last trading day of the week.

UAE markets remain under pressure after global equities continued to slide along with the price of oil.

The DFM closed down 222 points, or almost 5 per cent, to end the day and the week on 4,270.43 points, while the less volatile ADX was down 161 points, or 3.31 per cent, to end the day’s session at 4,718.28 points.

This marks a 15-week low for both the UAE markets, which have remained above this level since July 2, 2014.

Dubai’s market benchmark Emaar Properties fell below the psychological Dh10-mark at the opening of the session and closed at Dh9.9, down almost three per cent.

Among the biggest losers on DFM on Thursday were shares of Ekttitab Holding (down 9.24 per cent), Shuaa Capital (-9.1 per cent), Dar Al Takaful (-9.06 per cent), Al Salam Bank-Bahrain (-8.94 per cent) and Almadina for Finance and Investment Co (-8.74 per cent).

In Abu Dhabi, among the biggest losers were National Bank of Umm Al Quwain (down 9.85 per cent), Sudatel (-8.6 per cent), Bank of Sharjah (-8.05 per cent), ADCB (-7.23 per cent), and United Arab Banks (-7.14 per cent).

Concerns about a sustained deceleration in global growth have deepened recently and caused equity markets across the world to tumble. Investors are once again trending towards safe haven assets such as gold, which has surged from $1,190 per ounce on October 2 to scale $1,245/oz on Wednesday.

The price of Brent crude slumped below $83 per barrel on Wednesday morning even as the US dollar declined against other major currencies.
 

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