UAE markets gloomy as global woes

Markets in the UAE are seen extending losses on Thursday, with low liquidity, a lack of stock-moving news and downbeat global sentiment providing little reason for investors to buy shares. The Dubai and Abu Dhabi benchmarks slumped to their lowest levels since February on Wednesday and traders remain gloomy, despite a slight recovery in Asian shares in early-morning trade. "Dubai looks like continuing a trend of giving back most of its gains this year," says Mohammed Yasin, an Abu Dhabi-based capital markets specialist. "There's no news to move the market, there's a lack of leadership in the market and the negative sentiment from outside looks like increasing rather than decreasing." Dubai's index hit a 16-month high on March 5, but has since fallen 16.4 percent to trim its 2012 gains to 8.3 percent. Less than 62 million shares traded on Wednesday, its lowest total since late January. Asian shares on Thursday recovered some of the ground lost in the previous day's sell-off, but investors found no reason to bet on risk amid deepening turmoil in Greece and fears of contagion to other stressed euro zone economies.