The end of 2009 witnessed a gain by 10.2 per cent to 1,803.58 in the Dubai Financial Market index, compared to 1,636.29 at the end of 2008.

For the year 2009, the market capitalization plummeted by 8.4 per cent to Dh213.4 billion compared to Dh232.9 billion at the end of 2008, "primarily due to a decrease of market capitalisation of non-UAE companies listed on the DFM, but are not included in the Dubai Financial Market Index," said the DFM in a statement on Sunday.

Dh173.5 billion was the value of shares traded in 2009, which was lower by 43.2 per cent from the Dh305.2 billion of 2008.

Meanwhile, an increase by 44.7 per cent to 110.7 billion was seen in the number of shares traded, as compared with 76.5 billion shares in 2008.

A fall by 6.9 per cent to 1.984 million was visible in the number of transactions in 2009 as compared with 2.131 million deals conducted in 2008.

Meanwhile, the second rank was secured by Investment and financial services with Dh32 billion; while the transportation sector was third with Dh16.6 billion.

The banking sector and the insurance sector accounted for Dh12.7 billion and Dh7.2 billion respectively.

The year 2009 saw the value of stocks bought by institutional investors last year touching Dh35.708 billion, consisting 20.6 per cent of the value of stocks traded.

For the same period, the value of stocks sold by institutional investors was Dh35.531 billion, 20.5 per cent of the value of stocks traded.