Investors sold shares across the Middle East yesterday as a "wave of fear" over a possible Greek default took hold among traders.
Stocks: Performance
Shares on Dubai's bourse
"If you look around the world, Asia is down, Europe is down, and US futures are down," said Mohammed Ali Yasin, the chief investment officer at CAPM Investment in Abu Dhabi.
"The sentiment contagion is filtering through to the region.
"It doesn't look good. It's another wave of fear coming through."
Dubai's benchmark was down for a fifth day, its longest losing streak in more than four months. The bellwether Emaar Properties was down 3.3 per cent at Dh2.56.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index closed 1.4 per cent lower at 1,387.31.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index closed 0.8 per cent lowerat 2,496.99.
Egypt's stock exchange closed 1.2 per cent lower at 4,025.72. The exchange has declined 43.6 per cent for the year to date.
The EGX 30 Index was down as much as 2.2 per cent during yesterday's trading session.
"The country is dealing with its own internal factors, [which] combined with the performance of global markets is causing a sell-off in equities, and there may be more weakness ahead," said Wafik Dawood, the head of institutional trading at Mega Investment Securities in Cairo
Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait's index was down 0.1 per cent at 5,804.3, Bahrain's fell 0.2 per cent to 1,167.04 and Qatar's declined 1.6 per cent to 8,157.48.
The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index was down 0.9 per cent at 5,965.12.