Dubai Financial Market (DFM), one of the region's leading bourses, said foreign investors bought stocks worth Dh44.7 billion ($12.2 billion) during the first quarter of 2014, comprising 40.5 per cent of the total traded value.

Announcing the Q1 performance, DFM said its general index increased by 32.1 per cent to 4451 points at the end of the quarter compared to 3369.8 points in the previous quarter.

The value of stocks sold by foreign investors during the same period reached Dh45.5 billion comprising 41.3 per cent of the total value traded. Accordingly, DFM net foreign investment out-flow soared to Dh809.8 million.

Commenting on the transactions, the Dubai bourse said Arabs bought Dh22.4 billion worth of stocks while they sold 22.1 billion worth of shares during the quarter.  On the other hand, the GCC investors bought Dh9.92 billion stocks and sold shares worth Dh10.4 billion.

The market capitalization increased at the end of this quarter by 25.8 per cent amounting to Dh326.7 billion compared to Dh259.7 billion at the end of previous quarter.

The Arab World's top bourse said the value of shares traded during the quarter reached Dh110.2 billion, up 111.8 per cent compared to Dh52 billion recorded during fourth quarter.

The number of shares traded increased by 43.4 per cent to reach 58.4 billion shares during this quarter compared to 40.7 billion shares traded in the fourth quarter, it added.

DFM said at the sectoral level, indexes of four out of the nine sectors represented on the bourse ended the quarter in the green, with the real estate and Construction sector increasing the most by 52.9 per cent, followed by the financial and investment services and the banking sectors by 48.7 per cent, and 22.4 per cent respectively.

The services, telecommunication and the transportation indices down 9.2 per cent, 8.6 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.

The number of transactions executed during this quarter surged by 66.4 per cent to reach 659.7 thousands compared to 396.4 thousand deals carried out during the previous quarter, the bourse said in its statement.

As for the sectors’ contribution to trading volumes, the real estate and construction sector ranked first in terms of the traded value, to reach Dh55 billion, or 49.9 per cent of the total traded value in the market.

The banking sector ranked second at Dh25.1 billion or 22.8 per cent, followed by the financial and investment services sector with Dh18.5 billion or 16.7 per cent, the transportation sector with Dh5.5 billion or 5 per cent, the insurance sector with Dh2.9 billion or 2.6 per cent, the services sector with Dh1.7 billion or 1.6 per cent, and the telecommunication sector with Dh1.5 billion or 1.4 per cent, while other sectors shared the rest of trading volumes.

According to DFM, the value of stocks bought by institutional investors during the quarter reached Dh28.9 billion comprising 26.2 per cent of the total traded value.

The value of stocks sold by institutional investors during the same period reached Dh29.7  billion which constitutes 27 per cent of the total value traded. Net institutional investment out-flow from DFM amounted to Dh835.5 million.-TradeArabia News Service