Oil gives UAE bourses a boost

Oil trading at two-year highs above US$90 a barrel helped to stoke investor confidence and push the UAE's two main bourses higher.

The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) General Index closed 0.45 per cent higher at 1,631.11 and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index ended 0.2 per cent up at 2,706.00.

Emaar Properties was the top performer on the DFM, rising 0.8 per cent to Dh3.47. Other shares in the sector were also buoyed by investor sentiment as Arabtec rose 0.5 per cent to Dh1.96 and Deyaar Development closed 0.3 per cent higher at 30 fils. But shares in the capital's property sector fell. Aldar Properties, although the most actively traded stock with a volume of 8.5 million shares changing hands, retreated 0.4 per cent to Dh2.56.

Sorouh Real Estate declined 0.6 per cent to Dh1.63.

"Over the last 10 days, turnover has gone down [on the local markets], so this is normal for the end of the year. This is nothing significant," said Alfred Fayek, the head of MENA equity sales at EFG-Hermes.

The DFM and ADX have fallen 0.6 per cent in the past week.

Qatar's benchmark index declined to the lowest level in more than two weeks on speculation that optimism about company earnings from its winning bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup had been overdone. It was the only bourse in the GCC to end the day down, losing 0.3 per cent to 8,628.35.

Oman rose 0.5 per cent to 6,753.62; Kuwait advanced 0.2 per cent to 6,881.90; and Bahrain was up 0.2 per cent at 1,411.02 points. The Saudi Tadawul was closed.

fhalime@thenational.ae