UAE equities see-sawed in trading yesterday, opening lower as they continued Sunday’s sell-off but recovering strongly by the end of the session.
Investors looked ahead to Emaar's upcoming Dh9 billion worth of dividends that will be paid out to shareholders after hiving off the retail unit in an initial public offering last month.
“The drop was technically overdone,” said Nabil Farhat, a partner at Al Fajer Securities, a brokerage house in Abu Dhabi. “Especially if you have Dh9 billion coming into shareholders hands that should be reinvested into the market.”
Emaar Properties rose 1.4 per cent to Dh10.75. Emaar Malls Group, the retail unit of the parent company, rose 1.2 per cent to Dh3.19.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index was down as much as 2.6 per cent at the open. It recovered its losses by 2pm, closing up 1.9 per cent to 4,708.70 points.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index opened down 0.7 per cent, but closed up 0.9 per cent to 4,946.79 points.
Arabtec rose 2.7 per cent to Dh4.16 on rumors that the deal between Arabtec's main shareholder Aabar and the company's former chief executive Hasan Ismaik over the selling of his shares will be completed soon, Mr Farhat said.
Investor sentiment was boosted further on speculation that MSCI was going to increase the UAE weighting on its Emerging Markets Index, Mr Farhat added.
Global markets inched higher after aggressive losses on Friday triggered by a series of negative economic data.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.09 per cent to 6,345.42 points. Germany’s DAX index was up 0.4 per cent to 8,826.96 points. France’s CAC 40 was up 0.3 per cent to 4,088.50 points.
halsayegh@thenational.ae
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