Dubai: Largely driven by retail investors, who directed the day's liquidity towards Ajman Bank, UAE markets ended mixed on the first of the week on Sunday.

While the Dubai Financial Market General Index rose 0.73 per cent to close at 5,598.96, Abu Dhabi fell 0.34 per cent to 5,039.06.

On its listing yesterday, Ajman Bank's share price almost quadrupled over its offer price to Dh3.96, a surge of 296 per cent, helping the Dubai bourse to end the day in positive territory.

Emaar Properties and Dubai Islamic Bank also rose, 090 per cent and 4.05 per cent respectively to Dh11.20 and Dh8.45.

Ajman Bank's high trading volume of 259.98 million shares worth Dh1.03 billion pushed up the DFM's turnover value to Dh2.01 billion.

The volumes on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on the other hand fell to 142.32 million which were worth Dh800.32 million.

"The stock was dominated by retail and they were the ones who were creating all the liquidity today," said Amro Diab, head of GCC institutional sales at EFG-Hermes. "It was very obvious when you saw the Abu Dhabi stock market trading volume drop by roughly 50 per cent because the retail has taken the focus off stocks like Methaq or Arkan and they focused on Ajman Bank today."

However, Methaq Takaful Insurance continued to move up to lead the gainers table. It rose 9.67 per cent to close at Dh6.01. Arkan Building Materials also gained 0.17 per cent to Dh6.05.