Selling pressure from small er players and lack of trad ing interest from big investors dragged the market down yesterday. The overall sentiment was circumspect due to the big falls recorded by the Saudi stock market in the past two days and lack of buying proved to be a drag on the market, brokers said.
The DFM General Index hit a high of 719.37 before eventually closing at 698.26 points, down 2.64 per cent from its previous close.The breadth of the market was also negative with 17 losers as compared to four gainers.
In a market bereft of big trading activity, the smaller investors and day traders were left fending for themselves with no direction forthcoming from the institutional investors.This led to many of them booking profits at higher levels, brokers added.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM) also closed below the breakeven on widespread profit taking with losers outpacing gainers 10:3 on the exchange. The ADSM General Index fell 1.79 per cent to end the day at 4,453.60 points with more than 45 million shares changing hands on the exchange.
Traded volumes remained in the lower range as seen in the past few sessions with about 143 million shares being traded yesterday. The top five traded stocks accounted for about 84 per cent of the total traded volume on the DFM, data show. Emaar Proper ties was at the top of the trading table once again with about 40 million of its shares changing hands on the exchange. Amlak Finance followed with a shares turnover of 36 million yesterday.
Heavyweight Emaar Properties hit an intraday high of Dh19.15 and a low of Dh18.25 before closing at Dh18.70.
Top Losers in the DFM included the Dubai Islamic Insurance stock, down 4.42 per cent to close at Dh134.90, followed by the Al Mazaya shares, down 4.42 per cent to Dh6.70, Gulf General investments fell 3.57 per cent to Dh17.55, National Bank of Dubai shares were down 2.71 per cent to close at Dh159.55 and Union Properties fell 2.17 per cent to Dh4.49.
Trading views
The market closed below the 700 points mark yesterday after falling to sustain gains above this level in the last few sessions.Institutional buying, with the smaller investors riding on it, mainly drove the rally fron the 600 points levels.
However, at these levels the big players seem to be playing the wait and watch game, especially since the earnings season is upon the market.
This will give an indication of corporate performance and the help determine correct stock price valuations.
© Emirates Today 2006
