(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Newly listed shares of the retail division of Dubai's Emaar Properties soared on their first day of trading yesterday, highlighting rising confidence in the Gulf emirate's market after a crisis-triggered slump.
The group, which owns the Dubai Mall, one of the world's largest shopping centres, carried out an initial offering of shares to the public last month aiming to raise $1.58bn.
Demand from institutional investors was 30 times higher than the number of shares on offer. Sold ahead of their listing on the Dubai stock exchange at the top offered price of Dh2.90 ($0.79), Emaar Malls Group shares jumped 20 percent to around Dh3.50 at yesterday's opening. They ended the day at Dh3.25, for a gain of 12.07 percent.
That price puts market capitalisation at approximately Dh37.7bn, the group said in a statement posted on the Dubai Financial Market website. With demand 30 times oversubscribed among institutions and 20 times among individuals, the final allocation was 70-30, the group said.
Emaar Malls Chairman Mohamed Alabbar, who led the bell-ringing ceremony kicking off yesterday's trade, said "the response from investors to the offering has surpassed our greatest expectations". It is a "testament to the confidence in the Emaar Malls business and the UAE's financial markets," he said.
After soaring 107.8 percent in 2013, the Dubai Financial Market Index surged another 49.6 percent in the first nine months of this year, despite a mid-year hiccough caused by profit taking.
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