The UAE stock markets fell yesterday to round off a volatile week's trading.
The Dubai Financial Market made its six losses out of eight, falling 0.4 per cent to 5,509 points, while the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange ended on 5,081 points following a 0.31 per cent decline.
Like Wednesday, Dubai's top stocks largely suffered. Emaar fell 1.82 per cent to Dh10.75, its lowest close since October 4, while DFM Company confounded forecasts to fall further, this time slipping 0.96 per cent to Dh5.11. Dubai Islamic Bank bucked the downward trend, adding 0.49 per cent, but has lost almost a quarter of its value since the end of February.
"The bank's fall has been exaggerated, but investors are uncertain about what's going on internally and are therefore reluctant to hold the stock," said Amro Diab EFG Hermes head of institutional sales.
In Dubai, losers outnumbered gainers 16:9, while all active sectors declined apart from banking. Ajman Bank seems to be at last settling down. Following nearly two weeks of double-digit gains or losses, it climbed a modest 2.83 per cent to Dh3.26.
Arabtec jumped 9.96 per cent to a new record high of Dh18.20, buoyed by bullish broker reports and seemingly unrelenting demand from both local and foreign investors.
"People are buying on expectations of amazing second quarter figures," said Ganesh Mani, a Waves Investments research analyst.
Dubai's turnover toped Abu Dhabi's for the first time in seven sessions, with the former seeing Dh2.2 billion of shares changing hands, while the latter's trading was worth Dh1.6bn, its lowest for four days.
In Abu Dhabi, First Gulf Bank was struck by profit-taking following a near-10 per cent rise over the previous two sessions. It fell 2.07 per cent to Dh28.45. Etisalat closed flat, but National Bank of Abu Dhabi ended a three-day losing streak to edge up 0.72 per cent.
Sorouh Real Estate retreated, but its rival Aldar Properties marched on, climbing 0.39 per cent to Dh12.95, although it fell away from an intraday high of Dh13.10.
"There is a large number of foreign investors in the region and they are watching the declines in global markets and are hesitant to commit more money," Hiba Azar, Shaheen Financial Brokers senior broker told Bloomberg. "Some are choosing to lock in whatever profit they made in the past few days."