UAE stocks continue decline in lacklustre trading

Emaar Properties, the biggest publicly traded real estate company in the UAE, led losses in Dubai, while Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank spearheaded the decline in the nation’s capital.

UAE stocks continued to inch lower on Monday amid lacklustre trading as the Easter holidays kept many markets around the world closed, reducing foreign participation.

Emaar Properties, the biggest publicly traded property company in the UAE, led losses in Dubai, while Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank spearheaded the decline in the capital.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index both declined by 0.4 per cent. The benchmarks have fallen in the past week after a rebound from lows in January into a bull market fuelled by a rebound in oil prices.

Portfolio managers say that while UAE stocks are attractive relative to their peers in the region, the pick-up in prices last month had left them slightly expensive. The outlook for corporate profitability remains murky, and negative surprises could be on the way when companies and banks unveil corporate earnings in the coming week, they say.

Earnings have held their own despite the onslaught of lower oil prices. The price of oil has shed more than 60 per cent of its value since the middle of 2014, but it has affected some Arabian Gulf countries more severely than others. The UAE has a more diverse economy, and that has kept it growing at about 3 per cent.

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