The Abu Dhabi bourse made four gains out of five, but fell shy of the 5,000-point mark despite mega gains in the real estate sector.
While most investors attention was focused on a resurgent Dubai Financial Market, the capital's index also prospered thanks to its best turnover for four sessions.
This surprise spike in activity helped the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange shrug off Tuesday's reverse to climb 0.7 per cent to 4,985 points, its best finish since July 10.
Total trading was worth Dh1.3 billion, up by more than half on the day before, with the bulk of this turnover once again claimed by the real estate stocks and the usual speculators' targets.
Aldar Properties jumped 5.02 per cent to Dh12.55, its highest close for nearly a fortnight after accounting for almost a fifth of the market's turnover.
Rak Properties was another heavily traded stock and it surged 3.2 per cent to Dh1.99, although it has lost 17 per cent since the beginning of June.
More importantly, Sorouh Real Estate, Abu Dhabi's six largest listing, increased by 3.24 per cent to Dh9.24 and it has added five per cent since posting a three month low of Dh8.81 on Monday.
Market leader etisalat was unchanged despite receiving positive ratings from the world's three leading credit agencies.
"Etisalat was flat and that will always have an effect on the ADX," said Julian Bruce, EFG-Hermes director of institutional equity sales. The concentration seems to be in Abu Dhabi's real estate blue chips, while Dana Gas is attracting speculators.
"Methaq and Arkan are consistently attracting GCC-based speculators – the stocks are barred to foreigners – but these have only a very small weighting and don't have much effect on the overall index."
The leading banks were subdued, with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi making minor gains, while First Gulf Bank made a slight retreat.
In contrast, Union National Bank leaped the maximum 10 per cent after it revealed its second quarter net income rose by almost half.
Gainers outnumbered losers 29:14, with the biggest movers mostly small cap, little traded stocks such as Emirates Driving and Abu Dhabi National Takaful Company.
Methaq and Dana Gas were the most active stocks, between claiming 56 million, of the 215 million shares that changed hands yesterday. The former added 0.78 per cent, while the latter edged up 2.22 per cent to Dh7.74 and speculators will be hoping the apparent shift in market sentiment can propel Methaq to a new high.
DP World up 1.27%
DP World made it two gains out of three after seeing its volumes more than double from the day before.
More than 4.3 million shares were traded to push it up 1.27 per cent to $0.80, although this modest gain masks a volatile session for the ports operator, which saw an 11 per cent spread between its best bid and ask prices.
Depa was the only other active stock on the DIFX, but the interiors contractor fell 1.5 per cent to $1.33, which is 14 per cent below its IPO price.