Investors will turn their attention to see whether the New York Stock Exchange will resume trading today after Hurricane Sandy forced Wall Street to close for a second day.
Bourses in the United States were yesterday working on a contingency plan in the event that they had to close trading floor operations for a few more days as a result of floods.
"Insurance stocks would be hit quite hard, I would imagine when markets reopen, given the damage that has been done," said Saleem Khokhar, the head of equities at National Bank of Abu Dhabi. "It's pretty bad in terms of the floods. It has hit New York, the backbone for the US economy."
Today is the end of the month, when traders are expected to close open positions taken on margin.
"I wouldn't imagine that there will be forced margin calls," said Mr Khokhar.
"In unusual situations, you kind of bend the rules, particularly if you have closures."
In Arabian Gulf bourses there was little activity, amid an absence of cues from US stock markets and after a holiday this week in observance of Eid Al Adha.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index was little changed, up 0.03 per cent, to 2,671.69 points, while the Dubai Financial Market General Index added 0.02 per cent to 1,622.35. Kuwait's measure fell 0.01 per cent to 5,769.84.
Qatar's QE Index gained 0.06 per cent to 8,521.37.
Saudi Arabia's Tadawul and the Muscat Securities Market were closed for trading.
[ halsayegh@thenational.ae ]
