Emaar Properties shares fall to new 46-month low

SHARES WOE: Emaar Properties, the Middle's East largest developer, saw its shares fall to a new low on Sunday. (ITP Images)

Shares in Emaar, the largest developer in the Middle East, plunged 9 percent to their lowest value since December 2004 in morning trading on Sunday, as investors took fright from last week’s turmoil in the financial markets.

It came as US investment bank Citi, in a report published on Thursday, predicted a slowdown in the Dubai’s booming real estate market and stood by its buy recommendation for the stock, which was down 9 per cent at 5.18 dirhams at 11.43am.

Citi analyst Hasnain Malik told Arabian Business: “This is exactly in line with what is happening globally. If you look at what the markets did on Friday, it is a spillover from that.”

“We feel there is an overly pessimistic view for [Emaar’s] share price,” he added.

Emaar is the largest publicly traded property company in the Middle East and is building the world’s tallest tower in Dubai as well as a Las Vegas-style strip of hotels.

The firm is largely responsible for Dubai’s rapidly changing skyline in the last decade, together with the city’s massive construction boom.

Over the past year the company has lost nearly two thirds of its value, with shares falling over 65 percent.

At the start of the year the stock peaked at 15.70 dirhams.

Other big property companies in Gulf also suffered this morning. Abu Dhabi’s largest developer Aldar,  hit a new year low earlier this morning at AED 5.13, before recovering to AED 5.74 at 12.30pm, down 1.5 percent.

Qatar-based Barwa followed suit, falling for the fifth day out of six. The stock lost 10 percent to QR $44.9, approaching its January year low of QR 40.1.

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