Investing.com – United Arab Emirates equities were mixed at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Finance & Investment, Services and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Banking, Transport and Insurance sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Dubai, the DFM General lost 0.35%, while the ADX General index gained 0.06%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DFM General were National Cement Company P.S.C. (DU:NCC), which rose 14.05% or 0.430 points to trade at 3.490 at the close. Mashreqbank PSC (DU:MASB) added 3.09% or 1.95 points to end at 65.00 and Takaful House (DU:DTKF) was up 2.91% or 0.030 points to 1.060 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Marka Pjse (DU:MARKA), which lost 2.59% or 0.03 points to trade at 1.13 in late trade. Dubai Islamic Bank (DU:DISB) declined 1.98% or 0.110 points to end at 5.450 and Union Properties PJSC (DU:UPRO) shed 1.45% or 0.011 points to 0.750.
The top performers on the ADX General were Ad Commercial (AD:ADCB) which rose 1.33% to 6.10, Emirates Telec (AD:ETEL) which was up 1.02% to settle at 19.90 and Ad Shipbldg Co (AD:ADSB) which gained 0.41% to close at 2.460.
The worst performers were Abu Dhabi National for Building Materials Co PJSC (AD:BILD) which was down 6.00% to 0.470 in late trade, Arkan Building Materials Co PJSC (AD:ARKN) which lost 2.13% to settle at 0.9200 and Gulf Pharm Ind (AD:GPHI) which was down 1.79% to 2.190 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 21 to 12 and 4 ended unchanged; on the Abu Dhabi, 13 fell and 5 advanced, while 5 ended unchanged on the Dubai Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for August delivery was up 1.07% or 0.48 to $45.23 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in September rose 1.19% or 0.55 to hit $46.81 a barrel, while the August Gold contract fell 1.07% or 14.35 to trade at $1329.25 a troy ounce.
USD/AED was down 0.01% to 3.6727, while EUR/AED rose 0.25% to 4.0833.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.20% at 96.17.