AED 1.3 billion investments of banks’ portfolios in equities during March

MEDIA IN – Abu Dhabi 8 May 2018 / WAM /
The liquidity of national banks’ investment portfolios in the local capital markets reached AED 1.3 billion in March, which contributed to raising the total balance of its investments in equities to a high of about AED 12.2 billion at the end of the first quarter of last year. This year.
Analytical reading of the National Bank’s investment portfolios shows that a strong return to the financial markets during March reflected positively on a large segment of the leading shares listed in the real estate and banking sectors, which rose by between 10% and 20%.
Financial experts said that the high volume of liquidity injected by national banks in March of this year in particular was the result of their desire to obtain the annual dividends paid by companies to their shareholders.
According to preliminary figures, the distribution of companies to shareholders ranged from 5% to 80% of their profits in 2017.
The value of dividends approved by all listed companies in Abu Dhabi and Dubai Financial Markets during the same year exceeded AED 36 billion.
The Central Bank of UAE (CBE), which tracks the movement of indicators of the banking system in the country, showed that the total investments of national banks’ portfolios in shares rose from AED 10.9 billion in February to AED 12.2 billion in March, followed by a growth of 11.9 percent.
The same statistics indicated that the investments of banks’ portfolios in equities stabilized at AED 11.3 billion since the end of 2017 and continued to decline in value at the beginning of the year before the governor returned to inject liquidity into the financial markets.