Earnings reports hold sway on easy trading day

UAE markets were lacklustre yesterday as investors awaited first-quarter earnings reports.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index fell 0.4 per cent to 3,454.39 points.

“The market is sliding gradually in traded value and in terms of the index,” said Mohammed Yasin, managing dir­ector at NBAD Securities.

Traded value stood at Dh164.5 million shares, led by Emaar Properties, whose share price was flat at Dh7.27.

The developer’s retail unit, Emaar Malls, fell 2 per cent after confirming that it had offered US$800 million for souq.com.

Arabtec dominated in traded volume, and fell 1 fils to close at 89 fils.

“There’s less liquidity coming into the market at the moment and there’s no news to attract investments,” Mr Yasin said. He added that investors might wade back in for the quarterly results, expected around mid-April.

“Until that happens, markets will continue to be under pressure and sliding down slowly” to as low as 3,300 on the DFM index, he said.

In the capital Sharjah Islamic Bank had the most action in terms of volume and value, and fell 2.1 per cent to Dh1.37.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index was flat at 4,465.28 points.

Ahmed Waheed, vice president of institutions at Mena Corp, said investors were cautious. “People are waiting to see the results being announced, especially from those firms promising reforms,” he said.

Arabtec is among those whose results will be closely watched, having begun a three-phase recovery plan.

For the year to date, Arabtec’s shares are down 32.1 per cent, compared with a drop of 2.2 per cent for the Dubai index.

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