UAE stocks seen falling on property woes

"Both UAE markets will be opening with declines right away - nobody can be pessimistic enough," says Mohamed Alami, head of the international desk in the UAE at Naeem Shares & Bonds.

Abu Dhabi's main index will fall further than the Dubai benchmark, as losses in the previous session were restricted by the exchange's 10 per cent cap on stock movements on a single trading day, Alami says.

He sees Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate, which both fell more than 9 per cent in the previous session, declining another 3 to 4 per cent at least.

"In Dubai, I am going to be keeping a close eye on Emaar Properties and Arabtec today, as they are the only ones trading very high volumes in Dubai and they dropped with real power yesterday," he said.

 "I am inclined to attribute this whole thing to the very, very pessimistic outlook on the real estate sector in the UAE. Investors have gotten to a level where they simply don't want to be exposed to the UAE real estate market," he says.

The market will also be watching the Cityscape real estate exhibition in Dubai.