[2008-04-08]  Shares drop as investors await earnings for Q1
UAE shares dropped yesterday, with the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) General Index sliding 0.6 per cent to close at 5,482.25 and the Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM) Index falling 0.7 per cent at 4,738.06 points.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) slumped for a second day while Aldar Properties retreated along with a number of listed companies as investors await first-quarter earnings. The UAEs biggest Shariah-compliant lender, DIB lost 1.4 per cent to Dh9.54 on DFM, as Aldar slipped 1.4 per cent to Dh11 on ADSM.

"With the current news vacuum, we expect first-quarter earnings to be the next catalyst for the markets," said Walid Khalfallah, head of equity research at HSBC Middle East, in a Bloomberg report.

He added that the UAE and other Gulf markets would rebound after companies report their earnings for the first-quarter which are expected to show strong growth.

Aramex, the biggest courier company in the Middle East, dropped 1.7 per cent to Dh2.85 on DFM after a delegation of MBA students from Columbia Business School visited its UAE facility this week and hailed the company as a global success story. It is committed to continuing education and training as part of its mechanism for knowledge transfer.

Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat), the countrys biggest phone company, lost 0.7 per cent to Dh20.65 on ADSM while the largest private-sector natural gas company in the Middle East, Dana Gas, slumped 0.4 per cent to Dh2.26 and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank dropped 0.3 per cent to Dh6.25.



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