Shares shrink on profit-taking

Abu Dhabi stocks broke an 11-day winning streak yesterday as traders pulled back and took profits.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index lost 0.4 per cent to 2,589.60 points. Sammy Dallal / The National
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Abu Dhabi stocks broke an 11-day winning streak yesterday as traders pulled back and took profits.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index lost 0.4 per cent to 2,589.60 points, while the Dubai Financial Market General Index fell 0.9 per cent to 1,558.83.

Heavyweight stocks such as Etisalat, First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi led declines in the capital.

Meanwhile, Tamweel, Drake & Scull International and Emaar Properties retreated in Dubai.

The pull-back was "a normal profit-taking situation", said Talal Touqan, the head of research at Al Ramz Securities in Abu Dhabi.

"Sentiment is affected by global factors, but it's justified by internal factors," he told Bloomberg News. "Everyone now is willing to exit whenever a drop comes."

Debt markets told a similar story. Bond yields on Dubai's government debt rose for the first time in six days as fixed-income traders pulled back, in the wake of a rally that resulted in the yield on the emirate's10-year debt declining by more than a full percentage point in the past six months.

Bond yields move in the opposite direction to prices.

Oil prices rose to snap three days of declines, with Brent crude futures rising 41 cents to US$116.60 per barrel as European oil traders factored in potential supply disruption from Tropical Storm Isaac, currently bearing down on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Elsewhere in the Arabian Gulf, all other markets fell with the exception of Kuwait, which registered slight gains. The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index rose 0.4 per cent to close at 7,137.86.

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