Markets

DP World top traded stock after container volumes climb

Markets Wrap: Dubai’s DP World, the world’s biggest ports operator, jumped the most in three weeks after container volumes rose 7.5 per cent in the first half of the year.

Hadeel al Sayegh

August 08, 2012

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Dubai’s DP World, the world’s biggest ports operator, jumped the most in three weeks after container volumes rose 7.5 per cent in the first half of the year.

DP World shares advanced 2.9 per cent, the biggest increase since July 23, to close at US$10.30 on the Nasdaq Dubai exchange. The operator “handled 28.2 million 20-foot equivalent units across its global portfolio of over 60 terminals”, it said in statement posted on the bourse’ website last week.

“It’s a lagged reaction to the container numbers,” said Anastasios Dalgiannakis, the head of trading at Mubasher Financial Services, based in Dubai.

“DP World was inactive immediately after the news came out but today has been a busy day for the stock.” About US$4.1 million worth of shares were traded, the highest turnover since July 9. Air Arabia rose 0.7 per cent to 65 fils after the region’s biggest budget airline reported a 31 per cent increase in second-quarter profit. Net income advanced to Dh65m, from Dh49.6m. Air Arabia’s shares have risen 11 per cent this year, compared with 15 per cent for the Dubai Financial Market General Index.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index lost 0.3 per cent to 1,554.09, while the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index gained 0.2 per cent to 2,510.87.

Elsewhere in the region: Kuwait’s measure fell 0.4 per cent to 5,708.57; Bahrain’s index was unchanged at 1,090.54; Oman’s MSM 30 Index was little changed, down 0.01 per cent, to 5,433.65 and Qatar’s QE Index added 0.1 per cent to 8,353.00.

The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index moved up 0.25 per cent to 6,961.34.

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Red flags
  • Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
  • Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
  • Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
  • Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
  • Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.

Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching

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Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Almaty cost from Dh1,944 per night including taxes; and in Astana the new Ritz-Carlton Astana (www.marriott) costs from Dh1,325; alternatively, the new St Regis Astana costs from Dh1,458 per night including taxes. 

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While you're here

Michael Young: Where is Lebanon headed?

Kareem Shaheen: I owe everything to Beirut

Raghida Dergham: We have to bounce back

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Company profile

Company: Rent Your Wardrobe 

Date started: May 2021 

Founder: Mamta Arora 

Based: Dubai 

Sector: Clothes rental subscription 

Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded 

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