Dubai Financial Market General Index down 2.5% in August

The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) General Index is down by 2.5 percent to 2,523.1 points at the end of August compared to 2,588.5 points at the end of July, according to a DFM statement.
At the sector-level, indexes of seven out of the nine sectors represented on DFM ended the month in the red, with the financial and investment services sector decreasing the most by 6.8 percent, followed by the insurance sector by 5.2 percent, and the telecommunication sector by 4.6 percent.
The industrial sector was up 14.8 percent while the consumer staples index did not change during this month.
The market capitalization decreased at the end of this month by 1.8 percent amounting to AED232.8 billion compared to AED237.1 billion at the end of previous month. The value of shares traded reached during this month AED14.929 billion compared to AED12.441 billion recorded during July, up by 20 percent. The number of shares was traded up by 36.7 percent to reach 11.546 billion shares during this month compared to 8.445 billion shares were traded during July.
The number of transactions executed during August increased by 12.9 percent.
As for the sectors' contribution to trading volumes, the real estate and construction sector ranked first in terms of the traded value to reach AED8.095 billion or 54.2 percent of the total traded value in the market. The financial and investment services sector ranked second at AED2.478 billion or 16.6 percent, followed by the banking sector with AED1.809 billion or 12.1 percent, the transportation sector with AED1.262 billion or 8.5 percent, the services sector with AED913.4 million or 6.1 percent, the telecommunication sector with AED200.8 million or 1.3 percent, the insurance sector with AED171 million or 1.1 percent, while the other sectors shared the rest of trading values.
The value of stocks bought by foreign investors during this month reached AED5.889 billion comprising 39.4 percent of the total traded value. The value of stocks sold by foreign investors during the same period reached AED5.753 billion comprising 38.5 percent of the total value traded. Accordingly, DFM net foreign investment inflow reached AED135.5 million.
On the other hand, the value of stocks bought by institutional investors during this month reached AED3.173 billion comprising 21.3 percent of the total traded value. The value of stocks sold by institutional investors during the same period reached AED3.738 billion, which constitutes 25 percent of the total value traded.