Shares across the Arabian Gulf continued their downwards drift yesterday, as oil prices fell lower on anticipated higher US inventory data.
Brent crude futures were down 63 cents a barrel at $48.93 a barrel yesterday afternoon, with US Energy Information Administration data expected to confirm a rise in domestic oil inventories.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index ended in the red for the third day in a row, closing down 1.9 per cent.
Emaar Properties, Dubai’s heaviest-weighted equity, ended the day down 5 per cent at Dh6.19, seven fils off its low for the year to date.
Shares in Arabtec closed down about 2.6 per cent at Dh1.83, after it denied reports in the Arabic media that it would complete only the first phase of a project to develop one million homes in Egypt.
“Any recovery in prices is going to be U shaped rather than V shaped, but how wide the bottom of the U will be is open to interpretation,” said Sanyalak Manibhandu, research manager at NBAD Securities in Abu Dhabi.
“People right now are just trading on short-term ideas. With oil prices weak and the Chinese outlook unclear there is no impetus for local investors.”
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Saudi lost 1.5 per cent and Oman 0.9 per cent.
jeverington@thenational.ae
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