Investing.com – United Arab Emirates equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Insurance, Consumer Staples and Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Dubai, the DFM General declined 1.11%, while the ADX General index declined 1.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DFM General were Mashreqbank PSC (DU:MASB), which rose 15.00% or 13.05 points to trade at 100.05 at the close. Dubai Islamic Bank (DU:DISB) added 0.49% or 0.030 points to end at 6.140 and Dubai National Insurance (DU:DNIN) was unchanged 0.00% or 0.000 points to 2.590 in late trade.
Biggest losers included National General Insurance Co PSC (DU:NGIN), which lost 9.73% or 0.18 points to trade at 1.67 in late trade. Islamic Arab Insurance Company (DU:SALAMA) declined 6.38% or 0.040 points to end at 0.587 and Arabtec Holding PJSC (DU:ARTC) shed 6.29% or 0.090 points to 1.340.
The top performers on the ADX General were Rak Cmt & Cons (AD:RAKC) which rose 4.07% to 1.280, Al Khazna Ins (AD:AKIC) which was up 2.33% to settle at 0.440 and Rak Cement Co (AD:RKCC) which gained 2.15% to close at 0.950.
The worst performers were Ad Natl Ins Co (AD:ADNI) which was down 9.43% to 2.400 in late trade, Nat Bk Qaiwain (AD:NBQ) which lost 9.37% to settle at 2.90 and Abu Dhabi National for Building Materials Co PJSC (AD:BILD) which was down 8.22% to 0.670 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 35 to 2 and 5 ended unchanged; on the Abu Dhabi, 25 fell and 4 advanced, while 3 ended unchanged on the Dubai Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 1.00% or 0.53 to $52.65 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.99% or 0.55 to hit $54.89 a barrel, while the February Gold contract fell 0.54% or 6.55 to trade at $1204.25 a troy ounce.
USD/AED was unchanged 0.00% to 3.6731, while EUR/AED rose 0.21% to 3.9506.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.28% at 99.99.