By: Mahmoud Gamal
Dubai - Mubasher: The UAE stock markets are likely to see further gains over the coming weeks and to stop seeing sell-offs as investors are anticipating listed-firms; mainly real estate companies, to announce their cash dividends payments.
By the end of Thursday, the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) shed 0.63%, while the Abu Dhabi Exchange Market (ADX) tumbled 0.86% as real estate stocks fell.
Investor anticipation
Investors in the UAE bourses are closely watching listed-firms to reveal their cash dividends distribution, particularly Emaar Properties, after the recent hike in the markets backed by companies’ robust annual financial results, the vice president of investment research at KAMCO told Mubasher.
Raed Diab also noted that the government of Dubai has recently issued a number of economic growth initiatives to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the partnership between the public and private sectors, which will prop up the country’s stock markets.
Cash dividends
For his part, CEO of Al Safwa Mubasher Ehab Rashad said that the UAE’s twin bourses are expected to see further gains in the coming period on the back of real estate companies’ cash dividend announcements.
Foreign retail and institutional traders have recently shored up their investments in the local stock markets, seeking to capture the available opportunities, Rashad added.
Foreign investors are currently focusing on trading on active stocks that hit attractive levels, as well as equities that disclosed positive dividends to their shareholders, he highlighted.
Liquidity
Rashad pointed out that investors in the UAE stock markets should not worry about the recent declines as listed-companies will maintain announcing their annual dividend payments until next April.
He also said that liquidity in the markets will resume rising, especially after investors raised dividends and re-pumped it in purchasing stocks and forming new financial positions.
The CEO of Al Safwa Mubasher remarked that 2018 cash dividend distributions are expected to boost markets’ liquidity and push stocks higher.
113 companies
Total proposed annual cash dividends of almost 113 listed-companies valued at AED 32 billion, according to data by companies listed on the ADX and the DFM.
Cash dividends of listed-banks for fiscal year 2018 increased by 12.2% year-on-year to AED 18.7 billion, whereas telecom firms proposed dividends of AED 8.54 billion.
Meanwhile, the consumer services firms’ dividends valued at AED 1.7 billion for 2018, while dividends of real estate and insurance sectors valued at AED 1.1 billion and AED 568 million, respectively.
Furthermore, construction firms listed on the ADX and the DFM recommended AED 348 million dividends for 2018, while the financing and investment sector’s firms proposed dividends of AED 268 million.
Additionally, the industrial, the hospitality, and the healthcare sectors’ dividends for 2018 valued at AED 272 million, AED 130 million, and AED 107 million, respectively.
Translated by: Mai Ezz El-Din
