Dubai: Abu Dhabi and Dubai stocks advanced in early trades as strong blue-chip corporate earnings continued to provide guidance to investors in otherwise volatile market conditions. Some stocks in Qatar moved in opposite directions after reporting mixed numbers for the first quarter.
Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange traded 0.3 per cent higher at 6,081 points with First Abu Dhabi Bank showing a choppy trading, swinging between ups and downs before relatively stabilizing up 0.6 per cent. Its first-quarter results apparently failed to delight investors with profits edging up by 3 per cent on the back of steep fall in the impairment charges, which marks underperformance compared to its counterpart in Dubai, Emirates NBD, that posted a 12 per cent rise in the bottom-line.
UAE and other Gulf stocks underwent selling pressure in early trades after new waves of COVID-19 in some systemically important countries led to fresh lockdowns and stoked fresh investor fears about global economic recovery. Equity markets elsewhere are already reeling from the selloffs.
Abu Dhabi Securities Market dropped 0.5 per cent to 6,124 points, giving up some of the gains from yesterday. The volatility is expected to stay on for the short-term as investors turn cautious and wait to seize each opportunity to book profits on their positions.
Results awaited
Banking stocks acted as the biggest drag, with First Abu Dhabi Bank slipping 0.8 per cent ahead of the board of directors meeting later in the day to approve first-quarter results. The lender posted a double-digit drop in 2020 full-year bottom-line, but the UAE market has since returned to growth path.
Dubai: Dubai stocks scaled new heights with real estate stocks displaying yet another stellar performance after recent upbeat numbers from the sector brightened investor hopes about the developers plotting their patch back to positive growth.
Dubai Financial Market advanced 1.1 per cent to trade at 2,662 points adding to its gains of 2.5 per cent in the prior session, driven by the key developers. Emaar Properties and Emaar Development traded on top of the gainers list, while Damac Properties and Deyaar Development also made crucial contributions to the index advance.
The index has been trending high for the last few weeks, having recorded four successive weekly advances built on positive data from the sector. The more- than-doubling of sales figures by Emaar Properties in the first quarter gave investors a peek into how the sector has performed in the first three months of the year. Numbers from Deyaar Development came in to further enhance the view that real estate firms are boun
Dubai: GCC stock markets demonstrated a mixed performance on Sunday with Dubai and Saudi shares moving higher, while their Qatari peers underperformed as they underwent intense selling pressure from the lenders.
Saudi Arabia s benchmark index ticked up 0.6 per cent to trade at 10,049 points. The gains were spread across the sectors with material, financial and telco share contributing more than others to the upward movement. Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Basic Industries and Saudi Telecom all added value on a day that saw 131 stocks climb against lagging 47.
Dubai Financial Market surged as high as 1.3 per cent during the session before heading back to settle at 0.1 per cent for the day in what was its third successive advance mainly on the back of real estate stocks. The index resumed the upside rally late last month when reports surfaced about the property business making a turnaround led by a select set of segments which helped stabilize the property prices.
The ready and off-plan residential portfolio of Deyaar, which is majority owned by Dubai Islamic Bank, has seen a high demand and “we expect this demand to grow even more with the economic recovery in the emirate and the effort that the government [is making] towards executing the Dubai Urban Master Plan 2040”, he said.
The property market in the UAE softened in the wake of a three-year oil price slump that began in 2014 and as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which pushed the global economy into its worst recession since the 1930s.
However, economic support measures and government initiatives, including visas for expatriate retirees and the expansion of the 10-year golden visa scheme to encourage foreign professionals to settle in the UAE, have helped in improving sentiment.