Dubai stocks close at fresh high for the year

Air Arabia was the pick of the blu-chip stocks on Thursday. Pawan Singh / The National

Stocks in Dubai rose 0.3 per cent on Thursday, with the Dubai Financial Market General Index closing at a fresh high for the year of 4,229.04.

The index jumped 20.3 per cent last month – its best monthly performance since July.

Gulf Navigation was the index’s best performing stock for the second day in a row, closing up 14.7 per cent at 38.2 fils.

Air Arabia was the pick of blue- chip stocks, ending the day 2.5 per cent up at Dh1.64, its highest level since late February. On Wednesday, the Sharjah-based low-cost carrier said its Jordanian subsidiary would start flights to Kuwait, Iraq, Jeddah and Egypt from May 18.

The district cooling provider Tabreed, meanwhile, lost 1.5 per cent at Dh1.27, despite posting a 5 per cent rise in net income for the first quarter of the year.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index ended yesterday 0.6 per cent lower at 4,647.12, but still posted a 4 per cent increase for April.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi acted as a drag on the index for the day, after the bank’s earnings for the first quarter fell short of analyst estimates. Net income increased to Dh1.42 billion in the first three months of 2015 from Dh1.41bn a year earlier.

NBAD ended down 6.7 per cent at Dh11.10 – the largest single day decline since December.

Waha Capital was one of only a handful of stocks to end the day in the black, ending up 0.3 per cent at Dh2.60.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter