The Abu Dhabi and Dubai bourses gained a combined AED22 billion ($5.99 billion) during the first week of Ramadan, official sources have said.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) broke the 10,000-point barrier for the first time amidst increased demand for IHC’s Apex National Investment.
It drew AED10.1 billion ($2.75 billion) in transactions.
The main share index of the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) followed suit, advancing 0.74 percent to 3,541.6 points following 5,251 transactions worth AED520.5 million ($141.73 million).
The two bourses have been adhering to the Monday-to-Friday workweek — the norm across most of the world — since the beginning of the current calendar year.
That happened because the UAE shifted to a new 4.5-day workweek, with the weekend shifted to Saturday and Sunday, again the global norm.
As a result, this is also the first Ramadan the two bourses have been trading from Monday to Friday.
Before 2022, the typical workweek in the UAE used to begin on Sunday and go on till Thursday, with Friday and Saturday marked as non-working off days.
In the first week of the new timings, the Abu Dhabi index saw a slight decline, while the Dubai index closed higher.