DUBAI, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The Dubai financial market saw its leading gauge DFMGI retreating by 16.29 percent in the first half of 2018, while the ADX in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), gained 3.67 percent in the same period.

According to local Dubai media reports, the DFMGI was one of the worst performing equity gauges in the world during the first half of this year.

Real estate shares in particular under-performed, such as the UAE's biggest developer Emaar Properties. Emaar traded at 7.19 dirham (1.95 U.S. dollars) per share at the beginning of the year and closed at 4.92 dirham on Thursday, which marked the last trading day in the first half because weekend in the Islamic world starts on Friday.

Earlier in the year, international ratings agency S&P expected that the oversupplied Dubai real estate market would remain unattractive until 2020 when the World Expo will start in October.

At the ADX, the share of Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, known as TAQA, was a driving force behind the ADX's gain in the last six months.

TAQA doubled in value in Jan.-June in the wake of the rebound of oil prices. Crude price rose from around 60 dollars per barrel in early January to over 73 dollars this week.

Dubai's real estate tycoon Rizwan Sajan, chairman of non-listed developer Danube Properties, said he anticipated "more tailwinds for the UAE real estate sector in the coming years as the UAE government announced to liberalize the residence visa policy and to ease foreign ownership rules for companies."

Earlier in the month, the UAE cabinet approved a plan to issue 10-year work visa for highly qualified expatriates instead of the usual three-year visa, and to allow 100 percent ownership for foreign company owners in the Gulf state.