Investing.com – United Arab Emirates equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Transport, Insurance and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Dubai, the DFM General fell 1.16%, while the ADX General index declined 0.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DFM General were Dubai Financial Market PJSC (DU:DFM), which rose 1.46% or 0.020 points to trade at 1.390 at the close. Emaar Malls (DU:EMAA) added 0.78% or 0.020 points to end at 2.600 and Gulf Navigation Holding PJSC (DU:GNAV) was up 0.61% or 0.010 points to 1.650 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Air Arabia PJSC (DU:AIRA), which lost 8.63% or 0.120 points to trade at 1.270 in late trade. Union Properties PJSC (DU:UPRO) declined 6.19% or 0.070 points to end at 1.060 and Takaful House (DU:DTKF) shed 5.74% or 0.070 points to 1.150.
The top performers on the ADX General were Finance House (AD:FH) which rose 9.88% to 1.890, Gulf Pharm Ind (AD:GPHI) which was up 9.86% to settle at 2.340 and Gulf Cement Co (AD:GCEM) which gained 3.88% to close at 1.0700.
The worst performers were Union Cement (AD:UCC) which was down 6.98% to 1.200 in late trade, Abu Dhabi National for Building Materials Co PJSC (AD:BILD) which lost 6.06% to settle at 0.620 and Arkan Building Materials Co PJSC (AD:ARKN) which was down 4.49% to 0.8500 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 31 to 8; on the Abu Dhabi, 14 fell and 6 advanced, while 7 ended unchanged on the Dubai Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was up 0.97% or 0.51 to $52.85 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April rose 0.98% or 0.54 to hit $55.66 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.27% or 3.35 to trade at $1242.85 a troy ounce.
USD/AED was down 0.00% to 3.6729, while EUR/AED fell 0.10% to 3.9252.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 100.25.