(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Dubai abu dhabi bourses retreat 4.
the dubai financial market on sunday rectified what it termed as “a temporary system glitch” on the size of shareholding by aabar investments in arabtec as the error triggered a 10 per cent single-day plunge for the uae’s largest construction company.
data on the dfm website erroneously showed on sunday that abu dhabi government-owned aabar investments had cut its stake in arabtec for a second time in a week to 14.32 per cent from 18.85 per cent as of june 11.
following this shares of the biggest publicly-traded construction company in the uae nosedived to dh4.5 at the close. the stock has now dropped 33 per cent this month.
although the dfm later rectified the error and updated aabar’s stake in arabtec to 18.94 per cent through a notification posted on its website the benchmark dfm index retreated 4.71 per cent to close at 4609.28 points as other heavyweights dragged down the measure. emaar declined 5.08 per cent to dh9.35 union properties fell 5.02 per cent to dh2.27 and dubai islamic bank shed 5.81 to close at dh1.46.
in its notification the bourse said that a “temporary system glitch” caused the “misinformation pertaining to the 14.32 per cent quoted in some media reports”.
“the glitch was rectified as soon as possible to show the correct percentage of 18.94 per cent. the procedure in effect is to modify the shareholding percentage after the trading session; hence dfm management urges the respected investors to discard any other changes that may occur” the bourse statement said.
the level of aabar’s stake in arabtec is important because the deep-pocketed fund has backed the construction firm’s expansion to become one of the region’s largest builders helping to steer huge contracts its way.
between june 8 and 11 aabar cut its stake in arabtec to 18.85 per cent from 21.57 per cent fuelling a 30 per cent plunge in the price of one of the market’s most heavily-traded stocks.
aabar is the second largest shareholder in arabtec after arabtec’s chief executive hasan ismaik. in late may arabtec said ismaik had raised his stake to 21.46 per cent from 8.03 per cent. on sunday bourse data showed his stake had risen further to 28.85 per cent. in a separate statement posted on the bourse arabtec said its board would meet on june 18 to discuss the company’s projects among other issues.
backed by the state-fund arabtec has been pressing ahead with strategic expansion plans and new projects.
at cityscape abu dhabi arabtec showcased its new projects with a value of dh14 billion. the projects include five local developments — three in abu dhabi and two in dubai.
abu dhabi’s benchmark index fell 2.03 per cent.
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