Stocks in Dubai rose on Sunday as investors’ concerns about an escalation of the conflict in Yemen diminished.
Arabtec, the UAE’s biggest publicly traded construction company, and Dubai Financial Market, the city state’s stock exchange, led the gains.
Arabtec was up 3.6 per cent and the Dubai Financial Market 1.3 per cent.
The benchmark DFM General Index increased 0.9 per cent to 3,437.8 as 20 stocks rose and four fell. The index had fallen as much as 5.9 per cent on Thursday before paring its losses to 0.8 per cent at the end of trade that day.
Abu Dhabi’s main index fell by less than 0.1 per cent on Sunday to 4,370.30 while Saudi Arabia’s main equities measure rose as much as 2.3 per cent.
“In the UAE I think after Thursday morning’s knee-jerk reaction we did see a rebound towards the end,” said Sachin Mohindra, a portfolio manager at the Abu Dhabi-based asset manager Invest AD.
“Generally retail investors appear to be thinking that the reason for the fall, which was basically the Yemen issue, is pretty much a localised issue as of now and that it will be contained within Yemen. There could be some bargain hunting because Thursday was a good time to buy some of the blue chips, especially some of the dividend names in the UAE. In the UAE there are good names that one should keep accumulating on corrections.”
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman said on Saturday that a Saudi-led offensive against rebels in Yemen would continue until stability in the neighbouring country is restored.
* The National, with agencies