Investing.com – United Arab Emirates equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Finance & Investment, Services and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Dubai, the DFM General fell 0.17%, while the ADX General index declined 0.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DFM General were Dubai Islamic Insurance Co. (DU:AMAN), which rose 3.85% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.810 at the close. ARAMEX PJSC (DU:ARMX) added 3.33% or 0.150 points to end at 4.650 and SHUAA Capital PSC (DU:SHUA) was up 2.78% or 0.030 points to 1.110 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dubai Investments PJSC (DU:DINV), which lost 2.99% or 0.070 points to trade at 2.270 in late trade. Gulf General Investments Company (DU:GGIC) declined 2.44% or 0.009 points to end at 0.360 and National Central Cooling Co. (DU:TABR) shed 2.19% or 0.040 points to 1.790.
The top performers on the ADX General were Gulf Medical Projects Co PSC (AD:GMPC) which rose 14.69% to 2.03, Sharjah Cement AD (AD:SCID) which was up 14.41% to settle at 1.350 and Nat Bk Qaiwain (AD:NBQ) which gained 6.79% to close at 2.99.
The worst performers were Aldar Properti (AD:ALDR) which was down 3.10% to 2.190 in late trade, Methaq (AD:METH) which lost 2.30% to settle at 0.850 and Abu Dhabi National Hotels Co (AD:ADNH) which was down 2.10% to 2.80 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 22 to 14 and 3 ended unchanged; on the Abu Dhabi, 14 fell and 8 advanced, while 11 ended unchanged on the Dubai Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was up 0.33% or 0.20 to $60.80 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.12% or 0.08 to hit $64.28 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.32% or 4.40 to trade at $1353.60 a troy ounce.
USD/AED was up 0.00% to 3.6732, while EUR/AED rose 0.25% to 4.5844.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 88.72.