By: Mahmoud Gamal
Dubai — Mubasher: The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) closed Thursday’s trading session in red territory on the back of profit-taking pressures on its blue-chip stocks.
The DFM’s general index declined 14.34 points, or 0.56%, to end the last session of this week at 2,542.67 points.
Market capitalisation fell by around AED 878 million to AED 340.058 billion, compared to AED 340.94 billion on Wednesday.
The Investment sector led the market’s decliners with 3.77%, pressured by Dubai Investments, which tumbled 4.58% to close at AED 1.250 after announcing its acquisition of an additional stake of 66% in Globalpharma.
The consumer staples sector dropped 2.65% as DXB Entertainments slumped 3.04%, following the suspension of its AED 2.6 billion Six Flags theme park project in Dubai due to lack of funds.
The real estate sector retreated 2.38%, dragged down by the stocks of Emaar Development, Emaar Properties, which declined 3.65% and 2.68%, respectively.
The services sector was down 0.42% after Tabreed fell 1.14%.
On the other hand, the banks sector added 1.02% as the heavyweight Emirates NBD jumped 3% and the Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) rose 1.1%.
Turnover on the DFM retreated to AED 231.72 million on Thursday from AED 155.162 million in the previous day, while the market’s traded volume dipped to 13.047 million shares, compared to 86.50 million in the previous day.
Temporary transactions
The profit-taking trend has gripped Thursday’s trading session on the back of the market’s gains over the previous days, which is a salutary correction, financial analyst Ayman Alkassaby told Mubasher.
He forecast the DFM to restore the winning streak after the end of the short-term profit-taking transactions.
The announcement of 2018 financial statements and cash dividends will reduce the market’s seesawing movement in the medium-term, Ayman added, affirming that most of blue chips have hit attractive pricing levels.
Translated by: Ahmed Shehata
