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Dubai leads GCC stock markets in October

Dubai's benchmark index has gained 13.1% so far this year

Dubai remained the GCC’s top performing equity market in October, registering the biggest monthly gain in the GCC at 1.9 per cent to close at 4,591.1 points, data showed on Sunday.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index maintained consistent positive performance for the fifth consecutive month, data from Kamco Invest showed. The monthly performance pushed the year-to-date gains for the DFM Index to the highest in the GCC at 13.1 per cent, a report, prepared by Junaid Ansari, Kamco’s head of investment strategy and research, Mohamed Ali Omar, associate and Vineetha K. Yeluri, analyst, showed.

Four out of the eight sectors recorded growth during the month. However, the overall index surged during the month due to a gain in real estate index, which recorded a 1.7 per cent increase in October, closing at 8,458.0 points. The gain in the real estate index was mainly attributed to gains in large-weighted Emaar Development (6.3 per cent) and Deyaar Development (4.0 per cent). The consumer discretionary index posted the biggest monthly gain of 11.3 per cent, closing at 1,572.0 points, primarily driven by a gain in shares of Taaleem, which rose by nearly 11.3 per cent during October. Similarly, the communications sector index was the second-largest gainer during the month with a 7.0 per cent increase after the sector’s only constituent company, Emirates Integrated Company, saw a equivalent gain in its share price during October.

In terms of monthly performance, National International Holding topped with a gain of 117.3 per cent followed by Dubai Insurance and Emirates Refreshment Company with gains of 31.8 per cent and 25.1 per cent, respectively. The gain in shares of Dubai Insurance came after the company and OneDegree, a Hong Kong-based insurer for digital assets, started issuing digital assets custodial risk insurance to their customers in UAE after gaining an approval from the Central Bank of UAE. On the decliner’s side, Takaful Emarat Insurance topped with a decline of 53.6 per cent followed by Emirates Investment Bank and Al Mazaya Holding Company with declines of 16.7 per cent and 13.5 per cent, respectively. Takaful Emarat Insurance recently announced the company’s share capital increase from AD25.65 million to Dh210. 652 million by issuing Dh185 million of new shares at issue price of Dh1.0 million.

In terms of trading activity, total monthly volume declined by 9.3 per cent to 3.3 billion shares vs. 3.6 billion shares during the previous month, while monthly value traded increased by 7.1 per cent to Dh7.8 billion as compared to Dh7.3 billion during September 2024. Shares of Emaar Properties topped the value traded chart with total trades worth Dh2.0 billion followed by Emirates NBD and Salik at Dh1.0 billion and Dh646.5 million, respectively. In terms of monthly volume, Drake & Scull International topped with 648.0 million traded shares followed by Union Properties and Emaar Properties at 281.4 million and 239.3 million shares, respectively

In Abu Dhabi, the FTSE ADX index recorded a decline of 1.0 per cent in October after witnessing a growth of a 1.5 per cent in September. The monthly decline reduced the index’s YTD 2024 performance to -2.6 per cent.

The utilities index posted the largest decline among the sector in October with a drop of 11.2 per cent, closing the month at 11,283.4 points after Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, the only constituent company in the sector, recorded an 11.2 per cent drop in shares during October. Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries topped the gainers’ chart with a monthly gain of 82.2 per cent, followed by Abu Dhabi National Co for Building Materials and Eshraq Investments Co. with gains of 26.6 per cent and 15.3 per cent respectively.

Trading activity increased for the second consecutive month during October. Total volume of shares traded increased by 115.3 per cent in October to reach 14.9 billion shares as compared to 6.9 billion shares during the previous month. On the other hand, the total value of shares traded more than doubled to reach Dh60.9 billion during October as compared to Dh30.2 billion in September-2024.

In the wider GCC, the equity markets’ performance was mixed despite four out of seven markets registering gains during the month. The MSCI GCC Index recorded a decline of 1.5 per cent during the month that came after four consecutive months of gains. The decline mainly reflected declines in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi coupled with a marginal decline in Qatar.