Local stocks curbed declines in trading yesterday, falling to a limited extent, after falling, the day before yesterday, by up to 2%, tracking the impact of global markets. Yesterday saw heavy sales by foreigners as nationals turned to buying in both markets.

Analysts attributed the decline in domestic markets to the coincidence of profit-taking on local stocks, with the return of escalating trade tensions between China and the United States, which raises investors' concern that this will affect the level of growth of the global economy, and thus reflected on stock prices.

Dubai Financial Market

Dubai Financial Market fell 0.1% to close at 2796.98 points, amid the activity of shares «Emaar Properties», which rose by 2.37% to close at 5.18 dirhams, leading the shares and active stocks, after taking 29% of the trading value.

Nationals and Arabs were net buyers at AED 33.87 million and AED 2.358 million respectively, while GCC and foreigners were net sellers at AED 15.7 million and AED 20.5 million respectively. Institutions are net sellers at AED 32.8 million, while individuals are net buyers at AED 33.2 million, while other traders are net sellers at AED 428.34 thousand.

«Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange»

The Abu Dhabi Securities Market fell 0.04% to close at 5,080.97 points. Foreigners were the only net sellers at AED 21.4 million, while nationals, GCC and Arabs were net buyers of AED 14 million, AED 6.7 million and AED 667.8 thousand respectively. Institutions are net buyers at AED 643.3 million and individuals are net sellers.

Market interconnection

Wael Muheisen, general manager of Global Shares and Bonds, said the declines in the two markets were exaggerated yesterday, which led to the rise of some stocks during yesterday's trading session, such as Emaar. He added that local stocks are linked to global markets, and therefore, any tensions in the global markets will lead to the impact of local stocks.

Corrective movement

Wadah al-Taha, a member of the National Advisory Council of the UK's Institute of Investments and Securities in the UAE, said the market has undergone a "corrective movement" over the past two sessions, after rallies in local stocks last month. United, which further sharpened the decline in domestic stocks.

He pointed out that stocks witnessed some kind of consolidation during yesterday's session, to accommodate the sharp decline suffered by the markets the day before yesterday, due to investor fears about the future of the global economy.

He pointed out that investors are currently reassessing the levels of stock prices in the world markets, to determine their impact on the level of global growth expected from stock prices.

AED 39.25 billion profit for 56 companies during the first half

Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) today announced their results for the first half of 2019.

The results showed 56 companies made profits of AED 39.25 billion, a growth rate of 8.6%, compared to the same period in 2018.

Two companies switched from losses to profits during that period,

The number of losers reached three.

Sharjah Group achieved the highest growth among profitable companies, with a growth rate of 777%, after reaching profits of AED 21.04 million, compared to AED 2.4 million during the same period last year, followed by «Dubai Refreshments» with a growth of Arkan Building Materials Company grew by 180.5% to reach AED 30.9 million, with a growth of 121.5%, after profit of AED 33.78 million.

Emirates NBD and Abu Dhabi First Bank remain the top gainers, with AED 7.482 billion and AED 6.327 billion respectively.