Special Features
UAE Markets Update
It was a grim day on the markets today as both bourses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi fell, with Emaar sinking a huge 6.6% after this weekend’s news of the aborted Emaar MGF IPO in India.Two companies were reported to be launching IPOs. Manazel Real Estate, an Abu Dhabi company, perhaps sometime in 2008, and Aswaaq, a supermarket chain. Manazel could be one to watch, especially if IPO price is restricted to AED 1 dh per share, given that they said they’d made AED 1 billion profit in 2007 - which works out to 40 fils EPS if we have used the correct number of shares issued.
Foreign buyers have returned to the DFM, with net share buying of almost 400m dhs, about 10% of the total traded by foreign investors last week.
National Bank of Abu Dhabi said they would issue AED 2 billion of convertible bonds, the bonds to be listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Currency peg related news included comments that OPEC might switch from the Dollar to the Euro, while Merril Lynch thinks the UAE and Qatar might revalue in the near term by 5%. While Morgan Stanley said likely currency union delays may mean GCC countries (the ones still committed to the union that is) could revalue.
Dubai Financial Market The DFMGI tanked by a very unpleasant 3.1% to just below 5600 points today, closing at 5599 from moderate turnover of 1.67 billion dhs. Emaar Properties (EMAAR) got all the raspberries today - biggest fall, of 6.6% to 11.25, highest turnover of 770m dhs, highest volume of 66m shares, and highest number of deals at 2,659.
GGICO shone with heavy trading and a 4.8% rise to 13.10, the other 4 gainers rose on thin volumes.
The long and bloody losers’ list, apart from Emaar, had nasty falls for Islamic Arab Insurance (IAIC) down 5.7% to 3.45, Union Properties (UPP) down 4.8% to 4.57, Amlak Finance (AMLAK) down 4.7% to 4.63, AMAN down 4.1% to 27.00, DFM down 3.5% to 5.58 and the remaining actively traded stocks falling less than 3.5%.
Abu Dhabi Securities Market The ADSM index was slightly less turbulent than in Dubai, but still shed an unpleasant 1.75% to close at 4694 from a modest 479 million dhs of turnover. There were no gainers of any note - the 6 stocks that did rise, did so on a total of less than 0.5 million dhs of turnover.
In the actively traded losers list, Aldar Properties (ALDAR) and RAK Properties (RAKPROP) got the biggest whack, with 3.1% falls to 10.60, and 2.46 respectively. Abu Dhabi National Energy (TAQA) and Oasis Leasing (OILC) fell 2.7%, Dana Gas (DANA) 2.6%, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) 2.3%, and Etisalat (ETISALAT) was down by 2% to 24.25. The remainder fell less than 2%, or on low volumes.
