UAE market news & discussions for 22 January 2008Not what you'd call a good day in the office today. As Split Enz, those well known troubadours, used to chant, "I see red, I see red, I see red ..." A rout in global stock markets carried through to the UAE and gulf markets with ADSM suffering its biggest ever one day fall of 6.8%, while the DFM had its biggest fall in almost 2 years, of 6.2%. And Saudi's Tadawul suffered a crushing 9.7% drop. On the DIFX, DPW shares fell a gut wrenching 17% to $0.85 before recovering to $0.96 at about 4pm (6% down on yesterday's close). Goldfields and Kingdom Hotel Investments fell 2.8% and 4.8% respectively on thin trading. Is there anyone looking forward to the US markets opening in an hour or so? Amlak Finance was reported to be entering the Bahrain mortgage market in the next few months, and possibly Syria. But not Oman or Kuwait this year. They also said they would raise AED 6 billion this year, so if you want to borrow some money ... remember, as of this week, Amlak says it only takes 1 hour to get approval now. We're waiting to see if Tamweel can beat that (last week they claimed the fastest finance processing time of 48 hours). Aldar share capital increased by another 20m shares today, and is up to 2.44 billion shares outstanding. Dana Gas announced their 10% holding, in a 200,000 acre block of oil exploration are off the coast of West Africa, was approved. Emaar's chairman, Mohammed Alabbar, was reported yesterday to have said that their US unit is expected to make a small profit despite the subprime woes. He also said that Emaar has no plans to buy back any shares in the near term. Emaar was the subject of a positive update from EFG Hermes yesterday, fair value of AED 20.40 per share is unchanged from their December 2007 report. EFG Hermes was the top broker for trading volume on the DFM in 2007, quite an improvement from 19th place when they started in 2005. Tamweel's foreign ownership limit is to be increased to 40%, with effect from tomorrow (23 Jan 2008) according to a statement from the DFM. Rakaa Properties, a Saudi based company, said earlier this week that 40% of Dubai's 1.5 trillion worth of real estate projects have been suspended due to increasing costs of building materials. Is there possibly a connection between that statistic and the downward spiralling markets in the UAE? Aside from the rest of the world's stocks in turmoil that is. A Gulf News article said that Abu Dhabi could face a shortage of up to 20,000 accommodation units this year. Bad news for people renting, good news for people with property investments. Aldar and Sorouh shares tanked along with everything else today though. Qatar's finance minister was reported as saying yesterday the GCC should look at revaluing the US Dollar peg. Are there any GCC finance ministers left who have not said anything on the subject? 2007 results today
2007 results coming up
See the ShareWadi calendar for more dates |
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- 22 January 2008 shares and financial news for DFM and ADSM
- Air Arabia correction due? Jan 2008
- DANA 10% stake in West African Oil exploration block - PR 22 Jan 08
- DPW 2007 FY results release date 07 April 2008
- Dubai Financial Market General Index (DFMGI) Comments 01 Dec 07
- EMAAR 2007 FY profit AED 6.57 bn +3.1% 16 Jan 2008
- EMAAR report EFG 07FY results update - 21 Jan 08
- Insider trades January 2008
- Market Meltdown from US to India
- NanoDynamics to list on DIFX after IPO - PR 21 Jan 08
- TAMWEEL 2007 FY profit fall 47% to AED 451m - PR 20 Jan 2008
- What to trade?
- 21 January 2008 shares and financial news for DFM and ADSM
More UAE stock market news and discussions...
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Dubai Financial Market
The DFMGI fell a massive 6.2% to 5211 points on heavy enough turnover of 4.2 billion dhs. The first few minutes of trading saw the index plummet by almost 10% before recovering somewhat but in the end there was no mercy as all bar 3 stocks saw red.
DRC rose on 1 trade, OIC on 4 trades, and GGICO traded relatively high volumes while rising by 3.4% to 9.20.
On the loser's list, Emaar Properties (EMAAR) fell 6.2% to 12.20 on highest turnover for the day of AED 1.2 billion. DFM shares were also heavily traded and fell a 11.3% to 4.38. WARE and MAZAYA topped the loser's list but on just 3 trades. The more significant losers were Aramex (ARMX) down a staggering 13.5%, Dubai Investments (DIC) 11.9%, AMAN 11.5%, Tabreed (TABREED) 11.2%, Du Telecom (DU) 106%, and Union Properties (UPP) 10.3%. The rest of the actively traded stocks falling between 5% and 10% with Tamweel (TAMWEEL) fall of 4.6% looking relatively positive in comparison.
Abu Dhabi Securities Market
The ADSM index tanked by 6.8% to 4303 with turnover a less frightening AED 1.3 billion. Only 2 stocks rose, DRIVE and AKIC, both less than 2%, on thin trading.
The 2 Abu Dhabi property stocks were at the top of the loser's list (for actively traded stocks), Sorouh Real Estate (SOROUH) down 9.4% to 7.29, and Aldar Properties (ALDAR) falling 9.3% to 9.55, also taking top spot on the turnover table with AED 332m. Other big falls of 9.2% for Abu Dhabi National Energy (TAQA), 9.1% for Dana Gas (DANA), 9% for Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), 8.8% for RAK Properties (RAKPROP) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), 8.5% for Oasis Leasing (OILC), 8% for First Gulf Bank (FGB) and ARKAN, and most of the rest falling 4%-8%. Etisalat (ETISALAT) took a 7.3% hit to 21.35 from solid enough turnover.
At least there will be one positive performance in Abu Dhabi today. The Rocket Man (Elton John) at the Emirates Palace Hotel should be a blinder.
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