Bourses boosted by Dubai's bond bid

The Markets: Dubai's market reversed losses it made yesterday as optimism the emirate's bond programme would be tap into international appetite for bonds buoyed sentiment - with video.

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Local markets reversed losses made a day earlier as investors responded positively to Dubai's bid to raise as much as $5 billion from selling bonds.

Yesterday, Dubai's government launched a bond programme to take advantage of improving international sentiment towards for Dubai debt.

The Dubai Financial Market added 0.2 per cent at 1,554.99 points and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange edged 0.2 higher at 2,705.80 points.

Dubai's market had slipped to its lowest level this month a day earlier.

"It's a good time to raise money and from a long-term perspective the restructuring that's happened in the last couple of years are all positive developments," said Shakeel Sarwar, the head of asset management at Securities & Investment Company in Bahrain.

"That's why you're seeing risk premium in Dubai going down," Mr Sarwar said.

Among the gainers on Dubai's market, bourse operator DFM Company, which represents the only publicly listed stock market in the Arab world, advanced 1.7 per cent to Dh1.21.

HSBC analysts yesterday raised their rating on the company to "neutral" from "underweight".

But shares in the DFM Company have fallen 17 per cent in the last six weeks.

Heavyweight property stocks also led the momentum as Emaar Properties added 0.7 per cent to Dh3.10 and Arabtec advanced 2.3 per cent to Dh1.33.