Upbeat sentiments continue to be felt at Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), which saw on Thursday a total of 3,448 deals worth Dhs500 million over 187 million shares.

Cashing on in the positive development, the Abu Dhabi Securities Market General Index was up 0.94 per cent to 4,542 points, driven by gains secured by some of the blue chips, specially FAB which closed high at Dhs11.40 following trades to the tune of Dhs109 million. It was followed by ADCB, which rose to Dhs5.75, after trades worth Dhs53 million, and ADIB, which closed at Dhs4.00.

Aldar Properties likewise rose to Dhs2.12, following transactions of Dhs101 million.

The ADX General Index is a free float market capitalization weighted index of stocks listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. For an equity to be a member of the index it must have five trading days since it was listed. Investment companies: The investment and finance firms listed on local capital markets saw their profits jump to around Dhs885 million during Q2-2020 from as little as Dhs13 million only in the comparable period last year, according to the figures released by these companies recently.

The growth secured by these companies is driven by the steady performance witnessed by the local stock markets which factored into boosting the returns of the investment and financial services sector in general. There are six financial and investment firms listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and five on the Dubai Financial Market, with the latter having seen its firms record net Q2 profits of Dhs575 million, a growth of 323.4 per cent over the same period last year.

WAM