Bourse charts rise and fall of Takaful shares

MARKETS UPDATE: Shares of Takaful Emarat Insurance decline as investors book profits ahead of yesterday's surge in price.

What a difference a day makes with the rise and fall of Takaful Emarat Insurance the story on the bourses this morning.

Shares of the insurance firm, listed in Dubai, declined by more than three per cent to 78 fils at 10:40amm this was a reverse on yesterday when Takaful gained 7.8 per cent.

"The price is good considering the past period," said Rami Awwad, operations manager at Al Awael Securities in Abu Dhabi. Shares have fallen by 12 per cent in the last 3 months. "The chances are it will recover, it is a well liked stock among local investors, but volumes are not as high as leading firms," he said.

EmiratesNBD, which has the second biggest weighting on its emirate's index, lost 2 per cent to Dh2.94 a share. Emaar Properties, dropped 0.2 per cent to Dh3.52.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index declined by 0.4 per cent to 1657.98.

In Abu Dhabi, losses were led by Abu Dhabi National Energy, also known as Taqa, which fell 2 per cent to Dh1.45. Property firms fell, after The National reported yesterday that rents in Abu Dhabi fell as much as 16 per cent in the last three months of last year. Aldar Properties lost 1.6 per cent to Dh2.41 a share. Sorouh Real Estate lost 1.7 per cent to Dh1.66 a share.

Crude climbed 1 per cent to $88.93 a barrel.

Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait's measure lost 0.3 per cent to 6939.60. Bahrain's measure remained unchanged at 1428.55. Oman's index and Qatar's index also remained flat at 6949.36 and 9019.71 respectively. The Saudi Tadawul All-share Index was unchanged at 6723.31.