United Arab Emirates shares mixed at close of trade; DFM General down 0.77%

Investing.com – United Arab Emirates equities were mixed at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Staples , Insurance and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Services , Real Estate & Construction and Finance & Investment sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Dubai, the DFM General declined 0.77% to hit a new 52-week low, while the ADX General index climbed 0.17%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the DFM General were Marka Pjse (DU: MARKA ), which rose 1.75% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.58 at the close. Drake & Scull International PJSC (DU: DSI ) added 1.68% or 0.030 points to end at 1.820 and DXB Entertainments (P.J.S.C.) (DU: DXBE ) was up 1.63% or 0.009 points to 0.560 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Takaful Emarat PSC (DU: TKFE ), which lost 3.08% or 0.060 points to trade at 1.890 in late trade. Emaar Properties PJSC (DU: EMAR ) declined 2.28% or 0.140 points to end at 6.000 and Amanat Holdings PJSC (DU: AMANT ) shed 2.05% or 0.030 points to 1.430.

The top performers on the ADX General were Union Cement (AD: UCC ) which rose 13.97% to 1.550, Ad Shipbldg Co (AD: ADSB ) which was up 12.82% to settle at 2.200 and Rak Cmt & Cons (AD: RAKC ) which gained 3.00% to close at 1.030.

The worst performers were Rak Ceramics (AD: RKCE ) which was down 9.79% to 2.580 in late trade, National Marine Dredging PSC (AD: NMDC ) which lost 9.73% to settle at 3.060 and Union Insurance Co PSC (AD: UNIN ) which was down 9.50% to 1.62 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 23 to 15 and 4 ended unchanged; on the Abu Dhabi, 13 fell and 8 advanced, while 14 ended unchanged on the Dubai Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.05% or 0.03 to $61.12 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May fell 0.23% or 0.15 to hit $64.19 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.10% or 1.30 to trade at $1326.30 a troy ounce.

USD/AED was down 0.00% to 3.6730, while EUR/AED fell 0.31% to 4.5454.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.25% at 89.78.