By: Thabet Shehata

Dubai – Mubasher: The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) suffered negative performance in the last week of July and resumed losses after two straight weeks of gains on the back of pressure from the real estate and investment sectors, whereas gains by the banking sector trimmed these losses.

The DFMGI fell 1.38% or 58 points and closed at 4,143.21 points against 4,201.2 points. Turnover retreated 18% to AED 1.63 billion against AED 2 billion last week, with a daily average of AED 407 million.

Meanwhile, traded volume declined 24.6% to 1.077 billion shares this week against 1.43 billion last week, bring the daily average to 269 million shares.

Market analyst Waddah Taha said that the main aspect of UAE markets at present is the weak liquidity, which acts as an impediment, preventing the markets from entering new levels, the analyst said, adding that he expects this state of weakness to continue in the coming period and possibly for the next three weeks.

The investment sector led decliners, falling 2.95% as Dubai Investments (DI) and DFM Company dropped 4% and 3%, respectively. Both companies reported declines in their net profits for the first half of 2015 by 38.3% and 57%, respectively.

The real estate sector was down 2.2% as Emaar Properties and Arabtec plunged 1.74% and 4.4%, respectively. The telecom sector and its stock du retreated 0.37% and du closed at AED 5.380 against AED5.400 last week.

On the other hand, the banking sector enjoyed positive performance, adding 22% as Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) grew 2.2%, whereas Emirates NBD dropped 2.8%.

Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi