UAE, GCC equities plunge; bearish trend to persist

An investor monitors stock market activity at the Dubai Financial Market. The index fell 1.24 per cent on Sunday.

The UAE and other Gulf equity markets plunged on Sunday following Wall Street's poor performance on Friday due to concerns about a US government shutdown and global economic slowdown concerns. This bearish trend is likely to persist in coming weeks due to Christmas and New Year holidays in the West.

The Dubai Financial Market fell 1.24 per cent, or 31.1 points, to 2,478.7 points on Sunday, with 26 scrips losing and only four gaining on the first day of the trading week. Similarly, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange lost 0.8 per cent to close the day at 4,817 points.

The Dubai index was dragged down by property shares, with Damac Properties, owner and operator of the only Trump-branded golf club in the Middle East, losing 4.5 per cent, Emaar down 3.8 per cent while Union Properties was down 5 per cent despite its announcement of a share buyback plan on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All Share Index fell 2 per cent at the opening of the market, but recovered later to close 0.3 per cent lower at 7,730 points after banks in the kingdom said they had reached a deal with Islamic tax authorities to resolve a dispute over increased liabilities that would result in big one-off payments.

The Kuwait index lost 0.2 per cent to 5,300 points while Bahrain and Oman remained largely unchanged.

Generally, retail investors in the region offload their assets in order to raise cash ahead of the holiday season in the West and await the opening of US and European markets for a direction of the market after the holidays.

In the region, most indices ended the last week on a negative note with the exception of Egypt. Dubai was the worst performer amongst its peers with losses of 3.4 per cent for the week, followed by Oman and Saudi Arabia at 2.5 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, for the week.
"Going forward, the trading activity within the Mena region is likely to remain subdued affected by the holiday season and investors' sentiment being affected by concerns over global growth," said Lenie Assaad, associate, Allied Investment Partners.

Tariq Qaqish, managing director for asset management at Menacorp Financial Services in Dubai, said even if banks took the right provisions for the unsettled tax, it's a significant amount of cash leaving the banks' balance sheets.

"While M&A deals and higher interest rates that would improve net interest margins [banks' profitability] were key reasons for the outperformance of bank shares versus the benchmark, we do [see] downward risk and natural investor shift within the sector," Qaqish said.

- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com