Emaar Properties may remain under pressure for a few more sessions, which might weigh on the Dubai index.

Fund managers said that traders feel that the stock may hit the short-term upside, and prefer to continue booking profits making use of the dividend trigger.

“The fact that Emaar closed at the day’s lows with heavy volumes relatively speaking, suggests that the stock might be under pressure for the next few sessions. We don’t know how much of the selling has been done and how much is yet to come,” Farid Samji, group Head of Asset Management at Daman Investments told Gulf News.

The stock is down 7 per cent from its 52 week high of Dh7.79

Due to a fall in Emaar Properties, other stocks like Gulf Finance House fell. GFH fell 1.99 per cent lower at Dh 2.46. “It could also be that investors are taking their exposure out from Emaar and recycling that money into other stocks with a better dividend profile, after all the dividend yield on Emaar is not lucrative enough,” Samji said.

Dar Al Takaful gained 3.42 per cent to be at Dh1.21. Aramex gained more than 2.5 per cent at Dh5. Dubai Islamic Insurance and Reinsurance also gained 2.59 per cent.

Analysts feel that Dubai index may come under renewed pressure due to Emaar Properties, which has a 20 per cent weightage on the Dubai index.

“It goes without saying that when a heavy-weight such as Emaar comes under downward pressure, the sentiment would probably also overflow to other names which also come under pressure, drag-ging the benchmark index down in the process,” he added. Dubai index has gained 8 per cent in the past year. On Tuesday, the index fell 1.53 per cent to be at 3,502.36.

The focus is on bluechips in Dubai, a far cry from the previous trend when the small stocks like Gulf Finance House, Shuaa Capital, Gulf Navigation, Eshraq Properties were in the limelight.

For most part of 2016, small stocks like GFH, Gulf Navigation spurred volumes on the DFM to over Dh1 billion mark. But volumes now have fallen to Dh400-500 million.

“Turnover is low. The lack of liquidity is affecting the performance of the market. I would expect index index consolidating at this level,” Marwan Shurrab, head of high net worth and retail equity brokerage, Al Ramz said.

In other markets, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index closed 0.28 per cent lower at 4,591.52. The Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index closed 0.24 per cent higher at 6,993.13

source : gulfnews