Liquidity squeeze behind UAE market volatility

Yahia Abdel Azim, GM of Delma Brokerage commentated on the performance of the UAE capital markets, saying that turnover improved remarkably compared to the previous sessions. He added that bellwether Arabtec witnessed heavy buying today, reflecting investor upbeat outlook for strong H1 figures. Abdel Azim indicated that the losses incurred by Emaar’s Indian subsidiary led the DFM-listed developer’s shares to pare early gains of AED 3.11. The analyst ascribed the current fluctuations to tightened liquidity, noting that the bourses have recorded the lowest liquidity since 2010 during the first week of July. As for lack of positive news and the weak performance of blue chips on ADX, the analyst stated that Methaq showed solid performance, yet eroded some of its gains. The exchanges will be affected by the decisions related to Greece and Portugal’s debts over the coming period, Abdel Azim stated. “The local bourses are usually hurt by negative indicators of global peers,” he explained. There is a good case for believing, then, that sometime this year there will be a bout of increased market turbulence ADX is witnessing volatility and none of its stocks closed at an intra-week high, which mirrors negative sentiment among investors. Britain and Japan seems set to further squeeze liquidity and this could well prove to be a watershed for markets, triggering a period in which volatility rises sharply from its mainly very subdued levels of the past few years, UAE included.