Paltry trading could not stop the Abu Dhabi bourse from rebounding yesterday as four of the capital's five largest stocks advanced.
Speculators may have deserted many low-cap stocks, but the blue chips' limited recovery helped shore up an embattled Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, which climbed 0.55 per cent to 4,952 points, its first gains for three sessions.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank was the star among the capital's Big Five, surging 1.58 per cent, while market leader etisalat added 1.01 per cent. The telecoms giant posted a 58 per cent jump in second quarter profits to Dh3 billion. Aldar Properties and National Bank of Abu Dhabi advanced 0.42 and 0.25 per cent respectively, with First Gulf Bank the only member of the elite quintet to decline as it fell 0.91 per cent.
Turnover was a meagre Dh575 million, the second worst in the past 15 weeks and below only Sunday's total over this period.
The top four traders were all small cap companies, so speculators are still present, but on a much smaller scale than in June when Abu Dhabi's average daily turnover was Dh1.5bn. Interestingly, the July daily average is Dh1.4bn, which shows investors remained active until a sudden slump this week. Agthia was yesterday's top trader, followed by Dana Gas, Aabar and Rak Cement. The latter climbed 2.5 per cent, while Aabar and Agthia advanced, but Dana Gas fell 0.54 per cent to Dh1.85, its lowest finish since late October. Etisalat and Aldar were the most traded stocks in cash terms, accounting for almost a third of the market's turnover.
Investors took profits in some of their recent favourites, with Methaq and Rak Ceramics dropping 1.8 and 1.7 per cent respectively. The ADX is resting just above a pivot support at 4,938 points and could reach just shy of 5,000 points today. But if the former figure is broken then the index is facing a decline to around 4,900 points technical analysis indicates.
"The ADX has fared better than Dubai because it has less foreign investors," said Ayman El Saheb, Darahem Financial Brokerage director of operations.
This means Abu Dhabi has been less affected by foreign funds cashing in gains, not only to cover losses in other markets, but also because of anxiety from the standoff between the United States and Iran over the latter's nuclear ambitions.
"Foreign investors have only really been interested in Abu Dhabi's real estate sector, namely Aldar, Sorouh and Rak Properties, and these stocks have now settled down, while local speculating has seen volatility in the energy and banking sectors recently," added Saheb.
DP unchanged
DP World shares closed unchanged yesterday after trading in a four per cent range.
The ports operator finished on $0.80 as 6.6m of its shares changed hands. Newly-listed Damas was also unmoved on $1.04 after witnessing a sole transaction for 40,000 shares.
Depa enjoyed a day to savour, surging 3.7 per cent to $1.40, despite seeing just 367,000 shares were traded. Yesterday's close is 9.7 per cent below its initial public offering price of $1.55.