UAE stocks ended their recovery quickly to decline by the end of the week on cautious movements by investors to liquidate their portfolios prior to more announcements of first quarter results next week.
The markets traded on very low volumes with lack of interest by the end of the week. Investors were not willing to increase their positions and preferred to wait and watch for the outcome on global markets on week end, analysts said.
Dubai Financial Market index lost 24.53 points, 1.46 per cent, to close at 1653.06, very close to its critical support level of 1650 points. The market opened with a gap up and added around 10 points but faced selling pressuring on leading active stocks in the real estate sector including Arabtec, Emaar, Deyaar and DSI. The market continued to fluctuate in the downtrend until the end of the session.
However, the turnover dropped sharply during the downturn trend in the market with 272.2 million shares changing hands at a total value of Dh358.4m. The real estate sector dominated around 55 per cent of the turnover and created most of pressures on the DFM index.
The banking sector added to pressures on the index as heavyweights, EmiratesNBD and DIB, declined at low turnover.
The same scenario was seen in Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange as the market opened with a gap up and hit its resistance levels at 2,600 points within few minutes of trading, but turned bearish quickly and continued to decline in a steady movement.
The ADX retreated 20.89 points, 0.81 per cent, to close at 2565.81 points due to very low turnover.
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