UAE stocks retreat in new year

Traded value on the Dubai Financial Market stood at AED311 million, a decline of 70% compared with the 50-day average of AED1.06 billion.
Dubai led Arabian Gulf shares lower on the first trading day of the year after negative sentiment from oil’s drop to $56 a barrel kept investors on the sidelines, The National reported. “It’s not a great start to the year, with investors slow to return to the market,” said Mohammed Ali Yasin, the managing director at NBAD’s brokerage arm. “The market today is, still if anything, struggling with attracting back liquidity mainly of high net-worth and international institutional investors. The volumes are low, and in the absence of these two drivers we see limited movement.” Traded value on the Dubai Financial Market stood at AED311 million, a decline of 70% compared with the 50-day average of Dh1.06 billion. “It’s the first day of trading, no foreign participation … people are waiting to see how commodities will react this year,” said Marwan Shurrab, the fund manager at the Dubai-based Vision Investments & Holdings. “There’s a lot of uncertainty and investors are shying away.”