Investing.com – United Arab Emirates equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Real Estate & Construction, Consumer Staples and Insurance sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Dubai, the DFM General added 1.22%, while the ADX General index climbed 1.13%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DFM General were National General Insurance Co PSC (DU:NGIN), which rose 15.00% or 0.27 points to trade at 2.07 at the close. Drake & Scull International PJSC (DU:DSI) added 6.52% or 0.029 points to end at 0.474 and Damac Properties Dubai Co PSC (DU:DAMAC) was up 4.38% or 0.120 points to 2.860 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Emirates Refreshments Company (DU:ERC), which lost 10.00% or 0.450 points to trade at 4.050 in late trade. Commercial Bank of Dubai P.S.C. (DU:CBD) declined 4.00% or 0.200 points to end at 4.800 and Gulf Navigation Holding PJSC (DU:GNAV) shed 3.33% or 0.050 points to 1.450.
The top performers on the ADX General were Arkan Building Materials Co PJSC (AD:ARKN) which rose 4.23% to 0.7400, Aldar Properti (AD:ALDR) which was up 3.96% to settle at 2.360 and Natl Bk Of Ad (AD:NBAD) which gained 3.47% to close at 10.15.
The worst performers were National Corp Tourism Hotels (AD:NCTH) which was down 9.91% to 3.00 in late trade, Gulf Medical Projects Co PSC (AD:GMPC) which lost 7.62% to settle at 2.79 and Gulf Pharm Ind (AD:GPHI) which was down 5.12% to 2.040 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 24 to 14 and 4 ended unchanged; on the Abu Dhabi, 12 rose and 9 declined, while 5 ended unchanged on the Dubai Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.84% or 0.41 to $49.27 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.89% or 0.46 to hit $52.27 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 1.94% or 23.35 to trade at $1224.05 a troy ounce.
USD/AED was up 0.01% to 3.6732, while EUR/AED fell 0.03% to 3.9414.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 100.45.