UAE Stocks Blink Red; Oil Prices Gain Amid US Blockade of Sanctioned Oil Tankers

06:51 AM EST, 12/17/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Stock trading in the United Arab Emirates ended lower on Wednesday as oil prices rose after US President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and coming out of Venezuela. At close, the FTSE ADX General Index lost 0.269% and the DFM General Index was somewhat muted at 0.01% in the red. "Oil prices have bounced higher in early-morning trading today (WTI up around 1.3% at the time of writing), after President Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. This follows the US seizing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week. Venezuela exported around 600k b/d of oil in November. It's likely that these volumes will fall given the latest developments. The bulk of this oil is shipped to China," ING said. Back home, the UAE's non-oil foreign trade rose to 1.7 trillion Emirati dirhams in the first half, with the International Monetary Fund raising the country's growth outlook for 2025 to 4.8%, according to a report by the WAM news agency. Over to corporates, Abu Dhabi Ports (ADX:ADPORTS), d/b/a AD Ports Group, and Avesto Group agreed to form a new joint venture focused on providing logistics and freight forwarding services in Tajikistan. Shares of the Abu Dhabi-listed logistics and industry group closed the session 0.65% higher. Over in Dubai, Emirates NBD (DFM:EMIRATESNBD) launched a $700 million term loan with a period of seven years. The Dubai-listed lender's stocks rose 1.77% at closing.