JEDDAH/DUBAI: Most Gulf markets ended lower Tuesday after coming under selling pressure in end-of-year quiet trading.
“The general trend is sideways to negative, any upside is a bit of window dressing,” said Musa Haddad, head of Middle East equities trading desk at National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).
The Saudi market continued its downward trend for the third consecutive day on Tuesday with a reduced liquidity of SR2.59 billion. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed at 6121.78 losing 55.97 points down -0.91 percent. The market breadth remained strongly negative with only 20 advancers against 106 decliners giving it an AD ratio of 0.19, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market commentary.
Banks extended losses from the previous session, with Saudi British Bank losing 2 percent and Samba Financial Group slipping 1.9 percent.
Volatility dominated trading on Dubai’s bourse, as a three-day rally led by construction firm Arabtec came to an end on Tuesday. Arabtec, which rose nearly 25 percent over the previous three sessions, ended 3.7 percent lower after bucking the index trend for most of the day.
“When the stock started to buck the trend of the market, that was mainly people speculating that some news might come (about the company),” said Chamel Fahmy, senior regional trader for Beltone Financial.
Emaar Properties also declined, ending 4.3 percent lower after gaining of 5.6 percent on Monday. Emaar and Arabtec contributed most to Dubai’s gains in the previous session. Profit-taking contributed to the index retreating 2.2 percent to 1,789 points.
Selective buying at low volumes helped Abu Dhabi’s index to be one of only two regional bourses to end higher. Among gainers, Emirates Telecommunications Co. (Etisalat) rose 1.9 percent and investment company Aabar added 3.1 percent. The benchmark ended 0.5 percent higher at 2,743 points.
Local institutions bought Omani blue chips, helped lift the index 1.6 percent to 6,298 points.
Galfar Engineering advanced 2.5 percent, and Renaissance Services gained 2.8 percent.
Other Gulf markets also declined, with Kuwait’s measure losing 0.6 percent, and Bahrain and Qatar exchanges both ending slightly lower.
— With input from agencies
