The Dubai Financial Market General Index has recorded the highest year-to-date gains among its GCC counterparts, according to data released on Sunday. Data from Kamco Invest indicates that the benchmark achieved its third consecutive monthly gain and the second-largest monthly increase among GCC markets in the previous month, climbing 1.3 percent to end at 4,325.45 points. This elevated the benchmark's year-to-date gains to the top in the GCC, reaching 6.5 percent. The overall index's surge was driven by the financial index, which grew by 1.8 percent in August 2024, closing at 3,170.4 points. The financial indices' growth was primarily due to gains in heavily weighted banks and insurance companies, including Emirates Investment Bank (5 percent) and Dubai Islamic Bank (5.5 percent).
"The industrial index saw the largest monthly gain of 3.9 percent, closing at 2,979.1 points, mainly spurred by a nearly 11.3 percent increase in Parkin shares during August," stated a report by Junaid Ansari, Kamco Invest's head of investment strategy & research, Mohamed Ali Omar, associate, and Vineetha K. Yeluri, analyst. The communications sector index followed with a 3.8 percent gain after Emirates Integrated Company, the sector's sole constituent, experienced a 3.8 percent rise in share price during the month. In terms of monthly performance, Watania International Holding led with a 42.3 percent gain, trailed by International Financial Advisors, Dubai Refreshment, and United Kaipara Dairies, which gained 17.3 percent, 16.0 percent, and 14.9 percent, respectively.
Regarding trading activity, the total monthly volume decreased by 22.4 percent to 4.1 billion shares compared to 5.3 billion shares in the previous month, while the monthly value traded dropped by 14.5 percent to Dh8.0 billion versus Dh9.3 billion in July 2024. Shares of Drake & Scull International topped the value traded chart with trades worth Dh1.1 billion, followed by Shuaa Capital and Union Properties at Dh401.5 million and Dh360.3 million, respectively. In terms of monthly volume, Emaar Properties led with 2.0 billion traded shares, followed by Emirates NBD and Dubai Islamic Bank with 986.4 million and 888.6 million shares, respectively.
In Abu Dhabi, the FTSE ADX index slightly declined by 0.6 percent last month, marking its first monthly drop after two consecutive gains, closing at 9,284.93 points. This decline deepened the index's year-to-date 2024 loss to 3.1 percent in August. Kamco data showed that the performance of the ten sector indices on the exchange was heavily skewed towards decliners, with six indices falling while the remaining four saw gains. The healthcare index recorded the largest drop, falling 8.4 percent to close at 2,612.5 points, due to a 7.7 percent drop in Burjeel Holdings shares. Conversely, the telecommunications index had the largest monthly gain in August, rising 10.2 percent to close at 4,476.4 points, primarily due to a 10.7 percent jump in Emirates Telecom Group shares.
In terms of monthly stock performance, Al Khaleej Investment Co. topped the gainers list in August with a 44.2 percent increase, followed by Apex Investment and Finance House, which gained 32.4 percent and 26.4 percent, respectively. On the decliners side, Hily Holding led with a 26.4 percent drop in its share price in August 2024 after reporting a loss of Dh9.1 million in Q2-2024. Al Wathba National Insurance Co. and Aram Group followed with share price declines of 16.7 percent and 10.0 percent, respectively. Trading activity on the exchange decreased in August 2024, with the total volume of shares traded falling by 15.1 percent to 5.9 billion shares compared to 6.9 billion shares in the previous month. The total value of shares traded also dropped by 11.6 percent to Dh22.7 billion in August compared to Dh25.6 billion in July 2024. Adnoc Drilling topped the most active stocks list with 654.5 million traded shares, followed by Apex Investment and Multiply Group with 620.1 million and 540.1 million shares, respectively. In terms of value traded, IHC led with Dh4.6 billion worth of shares changing hands, followed by Adnoc Drilling and Alpha Dhabi Holding Company at Dh2.9 billion and Dh1.6 billion, respectively.
In the broader region, the MSCI GCC index saw a slight increase of 0.2 percent during the month, reflecting mixed performance at the country level. Oman was the best-performing market in the GCC, gaining 1.8 percent after two consecutive months of decline.
