By Thabet Shehata
Dubai – Mubasher: Dubai Financial Market (DFM) delivered a bearish performance in 2015, to record its first yearly losses since 2011, amid global economic volatility and the slump in oil prices, in addition to political turmoil that hit the region.
The main index lost 16.5% or 623 points in 2015 to end the year at 3,151 points, compared with 3,774 points at the end of 2014.
The market capitalisation of listed companies declined by AED 14.5 billion to reach AED 308.1 billion ($83.88 million), from AED 322.6 billion ($87.83 billion) in 2014.
The negative developments in the global economy, in addition to deteriorating oil prices, helped speculators pressure on the UAE markets, said Fadi Ghatis, CEO of THINK.
Furthermore, the disappointing results of some major companies in the real estate sector added more pressures on the sector, which deepened the market losses, he added.
The main index lost 1.66% or 53.3 points in December from 3,204.28 points at the end of November; thus it continued a bear run to the fifth successive month.
Meanwhile, the index fell by 12.3% or 442.3 points in the fourth quarter of 2015, compared with 3,593.28 points at the end of the third quarter.
Six sectors were down led by real estate, then investment and banks, while telecoms, services and commodities were in green.
The real estate shed 25.4% after Arabtec and Emaar lost 57.3% and 21.6% in a row. The banks sector also fell by 14.5% in 2015 weighed by DIB and Emirates NBD that declined by 10.4% and 16.76% respectively.
The full-year traded value fell by 50% to AED 151.39 billion ($41.2 billion) from AED 380.38 billion ($103.56 billion). Traded volume also decreased by 38.5% to 98.23 billion shares from 160 billion shares.
Translated by Sayed Abdel Rahman
