Dubai ends nine-day losing streak

dubai — Dubai’s stock market snapped a nine-day losing streak on Sunday that was triggered by Turkey’s economic crisis, but trade was thinned drastically by the onset of Eid Al Adha holidays in the region. Egypt’s bourse remained soft.

The Dubai index, which had dropped 5.9 per cent over the previous nine trading days, rebounded by 0.4 per cent in one of the lowest daily volumes this year.

Emirates NBD, which had plunged nearly 16 per cent because it is in the process of acquiring Turkey’s Denizbank for $3.2 billion, climbed 2.3 per cent. Overall, 17 Dubai stocks rose and nine fell.

Abu Dhabi’s index fell 0.5 per cent in thin trade. In contrast to most of the Gulf, the Abu Dhabi market has largely moved sideways since Turkey’s financial crisis erupted, partly because lenders such as First Abu Dhabi Bank, which lost 0.7 per cent on Sunday, have relatively little exposure to Turkey.

Many fund managers think Gulf bourses may ride out the Turkey crisis more comfortably than most emerging markets because of their currency pegs to the US dollar and this year’s strength of oil prices, which has left most economies in the region with current account surpluses.

Dubai’s Al Mal Capital said in a note, however, that even though Turkey was having a minimal fundamental impact on the Gulf, it had raised its allocations to cash to 10 per cent because of the global uncertainty.