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DFM drops on bets rally overdone on Europe

DUBAI — Dubai’s stocks retreated for a fifth day for the longest stretch of declines since November on speculation this year’s rally was overdone as Europe’s credit crisis damped investor appetite for riskier assets.

Aramex, the Middle East logistics company whose chief executive officer will retire by the end of this year, fell 0.6 per cent. Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest lender, fell to the lowest since January. The DFM General Index slipped 0.3 per cent to 1,638.25 points, the lowest since March 8, at close in the emirate, bringing this week’s drop to 2.4 per cent. The gauge surged 21 per cent this year. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index fell 0.2 per cent.

Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index dropped 0.5 per cent to2,500.22 points.

Investors “are cautious due to the global outlook and people want to see a clear indication of the direction of global markets,” said Musa Haddad, head trader at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi ’s asset-management group. “The markets year-to- date are doing very well, so after such a move there is nothing wrong with some consolidation.”

Europe’s Stoxx Europe 600 Index has lost two per cent so far in April on renewed concern that the euro area’s sovereign-debt crisis will worsen. In China, Xinhua News reported that the country’s central bank may cut the reserve-requirement ratio for lenders, raising concern about economic growth prospects.

Aramex decreased to Dh1.76, the lowest since Nov. 2. The company on April 14 said its CEO and founder Fadi Ghandour will retire by the end of the year, to be succeeded by regional head Hussein Hachem. Emirates NBD dropped 2.4 per cent to Dh2.8, the lowest since January 24. The volume of shares traded in Dubai fell to 166 million today from this year’s high of 835 million on March 5. Qatar’s QE Index slipped 0.9 per cent, Kuwait’s gauge and Oman’s MSM 30 Index fell 0.1 per cent each. Bahrain’s BB All Share Index gained 0.5 per cent. —