Abu Dhabi leads GCC losses as UAE stocks snap winning streaks in October

The UAE’s equity markets bore the brunt of October’s GCC selloff, and investors are firmly in risk-off mode. Abu Dhabi snapped a four-month winning streak with the region’s steepest decline, and Dubai fell for the first time since July, according to a Kamco Invest report. Trading dried up on both exchanges as geopolitical tensions weighed on sentiment, while value traded on the ADX hit its lowest level in at least 12 months.

Abu Dhabi had its worst month since March: The ADX General Index fell 6% in October, reversing four consecutive months of gains and pushing YTD losses to 5.3%. Heavyweight financials lost 6.6% and real estate 5.2%, with every listed property company ending lower. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank dropped 15% after net income inched up 2% y-o-y to AED 1.9 bn in 3Q, while Eshraq Investments fell 15.8%. Value traded fell 15.3% m-o-m to AED 20.2 bn, while volumes dropped 31.4%.

Behind the drop: Profit-taking after an extended rally and an escalation of attacks on shipping in Hormuz were behind the decline, Kamco Invest's Director of Investment Strategy and Research Junaid Ansari told EnterpriseAM. Results season wasn’t the trigger, though “weak reactions” to earnings added to the selling: the index had already shed 2.6% by mid-month, before the banks began reporting. A more solid September also meant the index had further to fall, he adds. IHC lost some AED 44 bn in value, and was down 5.5%.

A change in sentiment: Abu Dhabi’s slide points to “short-term investor caution over rich valuations following earlier multi-month rallies,” Ansari says. Investors also no longer see the war as a short shock, and have turned more defensive and selective. The ADX’s trailing P/E has slid from 19.6x at the end of 2025 to 16.3x.

Dubai lost momentum: The DFM General Index slipped 3.2%, with seven of its eight sectors in the red, including real estate, down 4.3%. Banks were the biggest drag, Ansari says. Emirates NBD fell 6.4% after 3Q income held flat q-o-q at AED 6.4 bn, weighed down by AED 2.1 bn in impairments tied to DenizBank. Emaar Development lost 7.3% as Dubai residential sales values fell 47% y-o-y in 3Q, according to Cavendish Maxwell. The only sector to gain was communications, up 3% on Emirates Integrated Telecom, its sole listed company. Value traded fell 24.9% to AED 10.4 bn and volumes 43.3% to 3.51 bn shares. Emaar Properties alone accounted for AED 3.9 bn, more than a third of the month’s value traded.

Oil’s rally isn’t reaching Abu Dhabi’s energy stocks: Brent rose 13.6% to USD 117.64 a barrel in October, yet the ADX Energy index fell 4.2%. Any benefit is concentrated in upstream players like Adnoc Drilling and Dana Gas, Ansari says. And for higher prices to show up in earnings, cargoes need to move freely, which they still can’t, he notes.