Emaar was the most active stock on DFM

Market bellwether Emaar had been the biggest gainer among the most active stocks on Dubai Financial Market (DFM) as the property major gained 38.95 per cent during the second half of 2009, followed by Aramex, DFM and Arabtec.

The Dubai bourse yesterday announced ranking of 18 most-active stocks based on their wide range of intra-session price fluctuations during July 1 to December 31, 2009.

The top five most active stocks on the ranking given by DFM were Ajman Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, DFM, Dubai Investment and Shuaa Capital.

"The stocks traded at a price range of 15 per cent up and 10 per cent down per trading session referring to the managerial note no. 2/2009 regarding the amendment of price fluctuation band of active shares in trading session, are considered. And companies that are not included in the list will be traded at a price range of five per cent up or down per trading session," said DFM in its release.

During the second half of 2009, the market was volatile in the range of more than 35 per cent as the DFM general index showed upward movement from June to mid-October and then started retreating as foreign investors were offloading. Ranked at 13, Emaar moved upwards from Dh2.8 to Dh3.95 during the period.

Taimur Saadat, Head of Technical Analysis at Arab Capital Markets Resource Center, said: "Because, market was volatile on news that was impacting the trading sentiment a lot. Whenever there was problem in the financial sector, financial, banking and realty stocks get a beating. The best performers of the year were Arabtec with more than 150 per cent of gain and other stocks that offered good gains include Emaar. Emaar also surged 65 per cent during the year from a low of Dh1.93. The stock is doing excellent on the bourse though it didn't perform well."

The stocks from realty, insurance, finance and logistics sectors figured in the highly active stocks on DFM, which tracked these stocks based on their upward and downward movement in a session.

However, the limitations of five per cent up and down on non-active stocks are not applicable to non-volatile foreign companies.

"Foreign companies listed on DFM as secondary market should not be subjected to the above mentioned standards or criteria and will be traded within the price range of 15 per cent up and 10 per cent down per trading session," said DFM.

Mirroring high volatility, the DFM general index touched 233.37 points on October 14 and a low of 1533.36 points on December 9, 2009.

"Foreign investors closed their positions and this brought down the market. Until today, foreign investors have been reducing their positions on the market. That's the reason the market is trading on thin volumes," said Saadat.

After the post-Ramadan rally, the market had been trading in a limited range. The year-end holiday season saw most of the fund managers going on vacation, thus resulting in bleak trading volumes on the bourse.

"With most of the offloadings, foreign investors are highly cash rich and they can't keep their funds with banks. Foreign investors and institutional investors can't keep funds with banks anymore as interest rates are very low for them. This situation will propel institutions and foreign investors towards trading. Hence, the market will soon see funds flow from them in the second half of the year," said Saadat.

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