mobanmarketDubai: The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) index fell by around a per cent on Tuesday as powerhouse Emaar’s share prices slid 3 per cent on selling activity by foreign investors.
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The index closed at 2,849.67, down 0.99 per cent, with most stocks ending in the red. Analysts said the selling of stocks such as Emaar could be partly fuelled by geopolitical uncertainty in the region after the drone attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
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The selling on Emaar also comes amid rebalancing by the MSCI this month that is expected to end in a reduction of Emaar’s weightage on the index.
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Other stocks on the Dubai bourse also ended lower, with Emirates NBD inching down 0.37 per cent, as Dubai Islamic Bank slid 0.93 per cent and Deyaar fell 0.63 per cent.
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In Abu Dhabi, the bourse’s main index rose by 0.19 per cent to close at 5,170.66. This was just a day after it jumped by 1.7 per cent as oil prices spiked on demand worries. Brent crude prices opened 20 per cent higher on Monday after the attacks in Saudi Arabia wiped millions of barrels of oil off the market.
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On Tuesday, however, Brent crude was trading in the red, with prices down 1.77 per cent.
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Both globally and locally, equity markets are mixed as investors attempt to digest major events such as the impact of the drone attacks in Saudi as well as the upcoming meeting of the board of the US Federal Reserve.
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Craig Erlam, senior market analyst for the UK, Europe, Middle East, and Africa at OANDA, said in a note that expectations around the outcome of the Fed meeting have changed dramatically as traders now price in a higher probability of no change in interest rates.
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“A 25 basis point cut is still almost 70 per cent priced in, but the way markets are moving at the moment, this could slip further over the next 24 hours,” he said.
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