• Home
• /
• Local business

Equities Fail to Sustain Early Gains

DUBAI — Profit-taking in Aramex and Air Arabia wiped out early gains in Dubai on Sunday, while First Gulf Bank lifted Abu Dhabi’s benchmark index. The two stock exchanges had a strong start but gains petered out towards the close, with The Dubai Financial Market main index barely changing from Thursday at 1,917.70 after rising by 1.6 per cent in mid-day session. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange gained half
 a per cent at 2,859.11.

“Investors were unwilling to hold on to gains and were more short-term focused. We can expect this kind of volatility to prevail because investors are still concerned about fundamentals. They are looking for more visible signs of an economic revovery in the remaining quarters” said Bobby Sarkar, equity research analyst at Al Mal Capital. Logistics company Aramex, fell by 4.8 per cent to Dh1.56. EFG-Hermes last week cut its long-term rating on Aramex to “neutral” but kept its short-term “accumulate” rating on the company.

EFG-Hermes said Aramex’s second quarter earnings showed that lower-margin freight businesses were more badly affected by the
 global slowdown.

Air Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest low-cost carrier, lost early gains to end 1.9 per cent lower at Dh1.03. Air Arabia posted a 10 per cent rise in its second quarter profit at Dh90 million, while net income in the first half of the year, went up by 21 per cent to
Dh193 million. Index mover Emaar Properties advanced in early trade by 2.9 per cent, but gains were pared to just 0.3 per cent at Dh3.15 at the end of the session.

Bucking the trend, Gulf General Investment Co. added 1.7 per cent at Dh1.83 after posting a second-quarter profit of Dh154 million, compared with a net income of Dh44 million in the previous quarter. The Dubai-based investment company did not provide figures from a year ago.

“Investors are accumulating positions into weakness hoping that this gap will close up in the coming weeks. But markets are still dominated by day traders, and until we see more institutional cash come in, we won’t break out of the sideways range we are currently in,” said Matthew Wakeman, managing director of cash-and-equity-linked trading at EFG-Hermes.

With rising oil prices, EFG-Hermes has also revised upward its
 GCC growth forecasts. “The four lagest GCC economies are now forecast to see fiscal surplus in 2009. We are now forecasting that Saudi Arabia will realise a small fiscal surplus in 2009. Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE were already forecast to realise fiscal surpluses when the oil price was expected to average $50 a barrel.”

In Abu Dhabi, advancers were paced by First Gulf Bank. The stock rose by 3.8 per cent to Dh16.50. Citigroup has upgraded First Gulf Bank to ‘buy’ from hold, and raised its target price to Dh20 from Dh14.40, saying the Abu Dhabi-based bank posted strong 
second quarter results.

Citigroup said that while it expects the bank’s non-performing/gross loans to increase to 3.75 per cent by 2011, the bank has a strong loan loss absorption capacity as high as 12.6 per cent. Etisalat, , gained 1.5 per cent at Dh10.40. 


rocel@khaleejtimes.com