Dubai's market staged its biggest daily gain in more than two months as investors were buoyed by Greece's latest aid package.
Video: Market Minute, July 03, 2011
Farah Halime looks at a busy day on the bourses
The Dubai Financial Market General Index climbed 2.5 per cent to 1,555.13 points, its highest point in a week, in the first day of trading after the Greek Parliament approved a set of austerity measures that staves off fears of a eurozone debt crisis.
Comment: Greek woes
Greece should look to Germany not Houdini for answers A good crisis should never be wasted. But by doing everything in their power to help Greece to avoid defaulting on its debt, that is precisely what the euro zone and the IMF are doing - writes James Doran. Read article
International equities climbed higher on Friday as some clarity emerged on Greece's debt crisis. The country is suffering from one of its deepest recession in 40 years and a default would probably lead banks to freeze lending to other indebted European countries, causing a eurozone contagion.
Shares in the country's largest stocks climbed to new highs.
Among the biggest gainers at the opening bell, Emirates NBD, the country's largest bank by assets, climbed 6 per cent to Dh4.40 and Emaar Properties, the developer of the world's tallest tower, advanced 3.3 per cent to Dh3.12, as almost 7 million shares changed hands.
Analysts said the local markets were now at the mercy of international news as the summer hiatus gets underway.
"[Local market] performance is exclusively geared to external market moves," said Julian Bruce, the head of institutional sales at EFG Hermes in Dubai.
Shares of Tamweel, the home finance company majority owned by Dubai Islamic Bank, will be included in the Dubai Financial Market General Index and the banking subindex from today, according to a statement on the Dubai bourse.
Tamweel shares restarted trading on May 10 after being halted for almost two years pending its reorganisation.
In the capital, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange added 0.8 per cent to 2,725.46 points, also its highest level in a week.
