Dubai’s benchmark stock index rallied the most in more than two months after the emirate won the right to host the World Expo 2020.
The DFM General Index advanced 4 percent to 3,015.65 at 10:02 a.m. in the city, bringing the gain for the year to 86 percent. Emaar Properties , builder of the world’s biggest shopping mall by floor space, jumped 3 percent and Dubai Investments PJSC gained the most in almost two months. Abu Dhabi’s gauge added 0.9 percent.
Dubai, which teetered on the brink of default in 2009, will invest almost 6 billion euros ($8.1 billion) on infrastructure projects ahead of the Expo, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, head of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee and chairman of Emirates airline, said Nov. 17. HSBC Holdings Plc estimates government and private expenditure will reach 67 billion dirhams ($18.2 billion) in the run up to the expo.
“In the next few trading sessions sentiment will drive the market,” Shailesh Dash, chief executive officer at Dubai- based Al Masah Capital, which manages assets valued at about 2 billion dirhams, said before the start of trading. “In the medium term, the actual news on projects and funding of those projects will drive the market.”
Dubai beat Turkey’s Izmir, Russia’s Ekaterinburg and Brazil’s Sao Paulo in a vote organized by the Bureau International des Expositions in Paris. The emirate, whose economy is rebounding as its hospitality and property industries flourish, plans to attract 25 million visitors during the six-month event starting Oct. 20, 2020.
Emaar climbed to 6.49 dirhams, the highest since October 2008. Dubai Investments, which holds stakes in more than 40 businesses, rose 5.7 percent, the most since Oct. 2, to 2.43 dirhams.
“We will see some new high for the market that we haven’t seen since the crisis,” Mohammed Ali Yasin, managing director at Abu Dhabi-based NBAD Securities, said before the market opened. “That spill over effect will help Abu Dhabi’s benchmark.”-Bloomberg
