Shares in Aabar, which owns around 9 percent in German carmaker Daimler, rose 8.3 percent to 1.59 dirhams. The securities regulator asked the company to raise its buyback price to 1.95 dirhams per share. “The fact there are no clear rules and regulations for such events didn’t help anybody,” said Zahed Chowdhury of Al Mal Capital. Aabar’s shares helped lift Abu Dhabi’s index rise 0.1 percent to 2,526 points.
Overall trading volumes remained low, slightly above the level of the previous Sunday. In Saudi Arabia, the Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) for the second day of the week ended with a loss of 16.75 points; down 0.27 percent at 6,117.21 points. The sector activity for the day was mostly negative with 12 out of 15 sectors closing with losses ranging from 0.02 percent by the Transport sector to 1.185 by the media and publishing sector.
On the other side the gains were seen in three sectors namely multi-investment, agriculture and food Industries and energy and utilities with respective gains of 0.11 percent, 0.27 percent and 0.35 percent.
The overall market breadth for the day was negative with 32 advancers against 85 decliners giving it an AD ratio of 0.37, the Financial Transaction House said in its daily market commentary.
In Dubai, the benchmark fell 0.8 percent to 1,508 points. Property-related stocks were sold off following a downbeat report from Fitch Ratings, which warned the credit outlook for the sector remains negative. Emaar Properties and Arabtec fell 0.6 percent and 2.7 percent respectively. “Despite signs that conditions may be stabilizing, as well as a recent round of debt restructurings and extensions, Fitch believes that the credit outlook for the sector remains negative,” said Bashar Al Natoor, Director in Fitch’s EMEA Corporates team, Dubai.
“Without a significant improvement in market conditions, sizeable disposals or additional equity raising, and significant government support, it is unlikely that developers will deleverage quickly enough to repay the upcoming 2011/2012 maturities from internal resources,” according to Fitch.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, trading was mixed with Bahrain and Oman edging higher, while Qatar and Kuwait fell, mainly due to a drop in oil prices and in the absence of any major positive catalysts. “Overall volumes and turnover for the market are lower, impacted by global markets sluggish performance and downward movement of oil prices,” said Gunjan Gupta, head of research at Oman Arab Bank.
— With input from agencies
