DUBAI – The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) rose 20 percent year-on-year in 2012, and was the GCC's best performing bourse last year, according to a new report issued by the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA). The DFM was closely followed by the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), which rose 9.5 percent last year. Saudi Arabia's bourse was up six percent. UAE's Economy Minister and SCA chairman, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, said that improvement in trading in the majority of economic sectors had driven market recovery in 2012. Analyst reports suggested that the UAE stock markets had “ushered in a new cycle of recovery buoyed by vibrancy and resilient fundamentals of the local economy in contrast of the declining growth in a number of emerging economies and the eurozone,” official news agency WAM quoted him as saying. Compliance of Public Joint Stock Companies to disclosure and governance regulations rose to 98 per cent last year, which helped boost foreign investment, said Al Mansouri. Net foreign investment inflow into stock markets in Abu Dhabi and Dubai increased by 568 per cent in 2012. He also stated that the new organizational, supervisory and legislative measures introduced by the SCA in 2012 including Stock Lending and Borrowing Scheme (SLBS), margin trading, short selling, market maker and liquidity provider, will help the UAE bourses attract more liquidity. Al Mansouri said that he hoped the “upbeat uptrend would continue this year” with the UAE's GDP projected to grow at four per cent in 2013. The economy is being driven by government spending, launch of mega projects, growth in tourism and trade and improvement in the real estate sector, he added. Meanwhile, UAE's real GDP is projected to grow by up to four per cent in 2013, fuelled by strong crude prices and expansion in tourism, trade and industry, a senior economy official was reported on Sunday as saying. In current prices, GDP is expected to soar to a record high of AED1.39 trillion this year from an estimated AED1.33 trillion, an increase of about 4.5 percent, said Mohammed Al Shehi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy. “The UAE economy will likely expand by 3.5-4 percent this year to maintain its position as one of the best performing and fastest growing economies in the world,” he said, quoted by the Dubai-based Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum. — SG/Agencies
