Etisalat aids Abu Dhabi bourse in calm trading

Heavyweight etisalat continued to support the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange yesterday despite a general bearish trend. Trading remained calm and the general index ended the session almost flat at 2,775.22 points, down 5.96 points or 0.2 per cent.

Like the DFM, the ADX is facing a severe shortage of liquidity and turnover dropped sharply, with 47.9 million shares worth Dh103.2 million changing hands.

Etisalat continued its uptrend at a very slow pace and on low turnover. The stock advanced slightly to close at Dh11.20. Active stocks in the real estate and energy sectors were down but in a thin range. Aldar retreated 2.14 per cent to Dh5.01 while Sorouh fell 2.81 per cent to Dh2.78 and Rakprop was down 1.67 per cent at Dh0.59.

Aabar Investments faced profit-booking pressure and fell 1.59 per cent to close at Dh2.45. The stock had rallied on Sunday after the company announced plans to acquire a 70 per cent stake in Arabtec.

Dana continued to retreat at a slow pace and fell one per cent to Dh1.01, while Taqa closed flat at Dh1.22.

"All market participants are taking very cautious stands," said Humam Albours Shamaa, a financial consultant at Al Fajr Securities. "A wait-and-see strategy is dominating the market. Speculators and daily traders have become very cautious while institutional and foreign investors are out of the market. They are waiting for the 2009 results which will be the main indicator of the market's future trend."

"Institutional and foreign investors are holding their cash out of the market to catch any opportunity that may appear after the announcement of results. This is deepening the confusion among small investors," he said.


FGB retreats

First Gulf Bank retreated slightly yesterday to close at Dh16.95. The bank has announced the resumption of its buyback scheme and bought 160,000 shares on Sunday at an average price of Dh17.05.

This came after the Securities and Commodities Authority extended the mandate for the buyback scheme for a further year from December 30, 2009. The bank has bought a total of 21.16 million shares and can buy back an additional 116.34 million.

 

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