ADX drops as Aabar ends offer

Shares in Abu Dhabi dropped the most in six weeks as Aabar Investments closed its offer to shareholders before it delists from the market. Aabar, with investments that include stakes in Daimler and Virgin Galactic, slumped 6.6 per cent to Dh1.85, dragging the index down by 0.6 per cent to 2,511.45. Sunday was the final day for shareholders in Aabar, which is backed by the Abu Dhabi Government, to sell their holdings at Dh1.95 a share. Investors should receive payment from Aabar today.

The volume of trading in Aabar shares on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) slumped from more than 430 million on Sunday to about 1.3 million yesterday. Not all investors had sold their stock in the company. "It seems that these were uninformed investors, perhaps investors neglected by their brokers, because who would want to sell at Dh1.80 rather than Dh1.95?" said Hassan el Salah, the head of institutional trading at AlRamz Securities in Dubai.

Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi's largest developer, was the most actively traded equity on the ADX. Shares dropped 3.6 per cent to Dh2.10 as the investment bank EFG-Hermes cut the stock from "neutral" to "sell". The price target was also lowered to Dh2.01 as analysts cited high debt pressures on the company. The Dubai Financial Market General Index advanced 0.5 per cent to 1,501.25. Air Arabia, the Middle East's largest budget airline, declined nearly 1 per cent to 84 fils a share. The company on Sunday reported a 44 per cent drop in second-quarter profit to Dh50 million, citing rising fuel costs.

Kuwait's measure rose 0.4 per cent to 6,693.80, and Bahrain's and Oman's remained largely unchanged at 1,400.84 and 6,347.14, respectively. Qatar's index was little changed at 7,117.25. The Saudi Tadawul All-Share index fell 0.1 per cent to 6,317.67. [e-mail]