Dubai bourse tops Gulf peers in June

Dubai stocks were the best performers in the GCC equity markets in June, rising 6 per cent on the month to close at 3,792 points, research showed on Monday.

According to a report published by Kamco Invest, gains in the DFM General Index came about due to increases in six of the eight sectoral indices, including financials, real estate and industrials sectors.

The consumer discretionary sector logged the highest monthly gain, soaring 48 per cent to close the month at 1,530 points. Within this sector, Al Firdous Holdings led gains with a nearly four-fold increase in its share price last month. The real estate index was the second-best performer, which rose 7.2 per cent on the back of Union Properties gaining 22.3 per cent during the month, data showed. The industrials index rose 6.9 per cent, with three of the six constituent firms recording strong gains, led by Gulf Navigation Holding’s 28.3 per cent gain in June.

The two sectors that ended in the red in June were the materials index, which fell 8.7 per cent after National Cement suffered a drop 8.7 pe cent in its share prices. This was followed by the consumer staples sector, which closed 5.9 per cent down on the month.

According to Bloomberg data, the top three gainers on the DFM for the month were Ekttitab Holding Company, which gained 194.4 per cent, followed by Ithmar Holding and Takaful Emarat Insurance, which rose 101.3 per cent and 68.3 per cent respectively. Ithmar Holding, which is listed in Dubai and Bahrain, announced plans to inject $200 million of Tier 1 capital.