Wednesday, Mar 06, 2013

Dubai: The Dubai measure, initially up in early trading, ended the day in negative territory as sell off in Arabtec shares continued unabated since the region’s biggest construction company announced last week the raising of $1.8 billion capital that may have a dilutive impact on shareholders’ positions.

The DFM index closed down 0.11 per cent to 1874.50. Volume of shares traded on Wednesday fell from previous day’s 209.59 million to 141.15 million with turnover dropping 29.69 per cent to Dh236.89 million.

Arabtec Holding shares fell 2.86 per cent to Dh2.04, extending its total decline to about 32 per cent since last week’s announcement. With 37.46 million shares exchanging hands, Arabtec was the highest traded stock on the day.

The region’s biggest developer Emaar Properties, also among the top five traded stocks and had the highest turnover, gained marginally to end 0.38 per cent up to Dh5.34.

Among the other major gainers were National District Cooling Company or Tabreed, which rose 0.68 per cent to Dh1.47, real estate company Deyaar Development, up 4.43 to Dh0.330 and global interior contracting company Depa, which jumped 2.50 per cent to $0.410.

Dubai Financial Market stock remained unchanged at Dh1.15.

Abu Dhabi

With major stocks retreating, Abu Dhabi benchmark index fell for the fifth consecutive session. The Abu Dhabi Securities General Index dropped 0.59 per cent to close at 3001.95.

Among the top turnover stocks, First Gulf Bank lost 2.21 per cent to end at Dh13.25 and Etisalat, UAE’s biggest telecom operator, slipped 0.49 per cent to Dh10.15. Sorouh Real Estate also fell, shedding 0.57 per cent to Dh1.75. Aldar Properties and Dana Gas managed to buck the trend, gaining 0.69 per cent to end at Dh1.45 and 2.13 per cent to Dh0.48 respectively.

Other gainers included Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, up 4.05 per cent to Dh3.60 and Eshraq Properties which jumped 3.57 per cent to Dh0.58.

Volume traded fell from Tuesday’s 151.85 million shares to 81.39 million, with turnover declining 21.37 per cent to Dh145.04 million. Of 32 traded stocks, 13 advanced, 11 declined and eight remained unchanged.

Other losers include Commercial Bank International, which declined the most on the day, tumbling 9.70 per cent to Dh1.49 and Ras Al Khaimah Cement Company, dropping 2.82 per cent to Dh0.69.

By Gaurav Ghose, Fiancnial Features Editor

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