Dubai leads world stocks rally

Dubai - Emaar Properties gained 3.3 per cent and Damac Properties added 4.1 per cent.

Dubai's beaten-down stock market rose sharply on Monday as the largest Gulf bourses ended a year in which most outperformed global benchmarks.
The Dubai index, which hit five-year lows last week, surged 2.4 per cent - it biggest rise since June 2017 - as real estate stocks rebounded. Emaar Properties gained 3.3 per cent and Damac Properties added 4.1 per cent.
The Abu Dhabi index rose 1.9 per cent to 4,915 points. Exchange data showed buying by local institutions supported the market on Monday.
Dubai real estate prices, a major cause of the stock market's weakness in 2018, still show no clear sign of recovering. Foreign investors sold a net $77.9 million of Dubai stocks in the last quarter of 2018, a large amount by historical standards, exchange data shows.
Dubai's bounce still left it down 24.9 per cent for all of 2018, making it the world's worst-performing major stock market for the year in local currency terms, marginally underperforming indexes in Shanghai and Athens.
Saudis set to join EM
Other big Gulf markets fared much better during 2018, however. Saudi Arabia rose 0.2 per cent on Monday, bringing its annual gain to 8.3 per cent - far outperforming a 16.9 per cent drop by MSCI's emerging market index. In 2019, Saudi Arabia is due to join the emerging market indexes of MSCI and FTSE Russell, which is expected to attract $15 billion of passive, index-linked funds to Riyadh and billions more in active funds. Kuwait's blue-chip index, up 9.9 per cent in 2018.
World stocks rise
Stock markets across the globe mostly rose Monday on the last day of a volatile year, after US President Donald Trump said he expected to resolve trade friction with China after speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
US stocks opened higher in their last trading session of 2018. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.40 per cent while the S&P 500 up 0.53 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.99 per cent at the opening bell.
In Europe, the CAC 40 of France rose 1.1 per cent to 4,730.69, ending the year down about 11 per cent. Britain's FTSE 100 closed down 0.1 per cent at 6,728.13 for an annual loss of 12.5 per cent. Germany's DAX, which was closed Monday, has been one of the worst-performing European indexes. It ended in a bear market, down 22 per cent from a high in January and 18 per cent from the start of the year.
In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.3 per cent on Monday to 25,485.70, while India's Sensex gained 0.2 per cent to 36,129.27. Australia's S&P ASX/200's benchmark slipped 0.1 per cent to 5,646.40. Most other markets were closed for the New Year holiday.