By: Thabet Shehata
Dubai – Mubasher: The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) ended Thursday, the last trading session of the week and January in the red, after being pressured by global market declines and retreating oil prices. The DFM lost 1.66% or 62 points and closed at 3674.4 points.
Al Sherhan Centre for Stocks and Bonds General Manager Gamal Aggag commented that the market saw selling on some leading companies’ stocks, resulting in a negative effect in the session’s overall trades, which were disappointing.
The massive decline seen over the past few days is unjustified particularly in the presence of generally positive financials, Aggag told Mubasher in an exclusive comment, adding that the overall atmosphere is what controls the market at present.
Meanwhile, capital market analyst Tarek Essawy noted that today’s closing was acceptable and within normal range, provided that market closes above 3650 points. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), however, failed to cling to the 4500-point level, he added.
Turnover continued to decline as well, reaching AED 476.6 million after 273.7 million shares were traded through 5.9THD transactions.
The investment sector led losers, falling 2.9%, followed by the real estate, telecoms and banking sectors by 2.67%, 2.52% and 0.9%, respectively.
On his part, Delma Trading Manager Wael Mahdi attributed Thursday’s declines to several factors, namely US market declines, absence of buyers in speculative movements on stocks and the retreating Saudi market.
In his comment to Mubasher, Mahdi highlighted that Thursday is the final trading session of the month, which prompted investors to close their positions, thus negatively affecting Thursday’s trades.
Meanwhile, the consumer staples and transport sectors added 1.2% and 1.06%, respectively. The industrial sector saw no change today.
Takaful topped local losing stocks, falling 8.5% to AED 0.570, whereas the Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) leaped by 14.6%, backed by financials and dividend distribution.
Arabtec, Dubai Investments, Emaar Properties, Emirates NBD and Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), ended in the red, falling 3.65%, 3.11%, 2.9%, 2.8% and 2.54%, respectively.
Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi
