Investing.com – United Arab Emirates equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Banking and Real Estate & Construction sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Dubai, the DFM General added 0.96%, while the ADX General index added 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DFM General were National Cement Company P.S.C. (DU:NCC), which rose 3.33% or 0.100 points to trade at 3.100 at the close. Damac Properties Dubai Co PSC (DU:DAMAC) added 2.55% or 0.070 points to end at 2.820 and Emirates NBD PJSC (DU:ENBD) was up 2.47% or 0.200 points to 8.300 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Gulf Navigation Holding PJSC (DU:GNAV), which lost 2.84% or 0.040 points to trade at 1.370 in late trade. ARAMEX PJSC (DU:ARMX) declined 2.56% or 0.130 points to end at 4.950 and AJMAN BANK PJSC (DU:AJBNK) shed 1.53% or 0.020 points to 1.290.
The top performers on the ADX General were Ad Aviation (AD:ADAV) which rose 7.41% to 2.900, Eshraq Properties Co PJSC (AD:ESHR) which was up 4.90% to settle at 1.0700 and Abu Dhabi National Hotels Co (AD:ADNH) which gained 4.67% to close at 3.14.
The worst performers were Waha Capital (AD:WAHA) which was down 7.62% to 1.940 in late trade, Dana Gas (AD:DANA) which lost 2.33% to settle at 0.420 and Natl Bk Of Ad (AD:NBAD) which was down 1.91% to 10.25 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 22 to 11 and 6 ended unchanged; on the Abu Dhabi, 11 rose and 7 declined, while 10 ended unchanged on the Dubai Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was down 0.18% or 0.09 to $49.42 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June fell 0.38% or 0.20 to hit $52.34 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.28% or 3.55 to trade at $1250.15 a troy ounce.
USD/AED was up 0.00% to 3.6730, while EUR/AED fell 0.24% to 3.9446.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 99.93.