The Abu Dhabi and Dubai stock markets both gained ground on the last trading day of the first quarter.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index rose 0.9 per cent on Thursday to close at 3,480.43.
That brought it to a loss of 4.1 per cent for the month and 1.4 per cent for the quarter.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Market General Index rose by 0.1 per cent on the day to close at 4,443.53.
That capped a loss of 2.3 per cent for both the month and the quarter for the index.
Jameel Ahmad, vice president of corporate development and market research at FXTM, said that while emerging markets as a whole did well in the quarter, the UAE markets succumbed to noticeable selling pressure throughout this month.
“This also happens to have occurred at the same time that fire selling in the oil markets resumed, so you could assume that the local markets remain sensitive towards the price of oil on the international markets despite the ongoing attempts to diversify economic reliance on exporting the commodity,” he said.
On Thursday the Abu Dhabi market was led by Abu Dhabi Aviation, which rose 7.4 per cent to Dh2.90 a share.
On the last day of trade before their merger, National Bank of Abu Dhabi dropped 1.9 per cent to Dh10.25 while FGB shed 0.39 per cent to close at Dh12.90.
The Dubai index was lifted by National Cement Company, which rose 3.3 per cent to close at Dh3.10. Damac Properties gained 2.5 per cent to trade at Dh2.82 while Emirates NBD prices rose 2.4 per cent to Dh8.30.
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