Despite a number of supportive news flowing during the third week of April, stock indices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi could not break their sluggish performances they have seen since the start of the month, as worries over the Euro zone debt crisis prevail.

The Dubai Financial Market General Index (DFMGI) and the Abu Dhabi market gauge ADXGI fell Thursday by a quarter percentage point and by half a percent, respectively.

Over the week, which ends in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday as Friday is the Islamic day-off, the DFMGI declined 2.88 percent while the ADXGI headed down by 0.91 percent.

"Eurozone concerns will dominate and determine the performance of equity markets over the short term," Tim Fox, chief economist at UAE's largest lender by assets Emirates NBD, said in Monthly Insights report released earlier in the day.

Worries that the sovereign debt in Eurozone member's Spain would go out of control were a bit dampened Thursday, when a bond auction for Spanish 10-year debt titles saw strong demand.

Because of these concerns, no sort of supportive news could bring back optimism to the UAE stock markets. On Wednesday, the customs authorities of the emirates of Dubai revealed that its foreign trade value hit for the first 1.1 Dirham (299 billion U.S. dollar), an increase of 22 percent over 2011.

Nevertheless, at Dubai's international bourse NASDAQ Dubai, shares of Dubai Ports (DP) World, the world's fourth largest port operator, declined 0.35 percent to close at 11. 35 U. S. dollars. Trading volumes at all three UAE equity exchanges remained low during the week.

"Sentiment in the UAE continues to improve and the UAE is the happiest country in the Gulf Arab region according to the UN's First World Happiness Report, placing the UAE ahead of the UK, Germany and Hong Kong," Emirates NBD's Fox said.

On Wednesday, rating agency Standard and Poor's upgraded the credit rating of Abu Dhabi's largest developer Aldar Properties to B+ from B. The outlook was kept stable. But Aldar shares dived 3. 52 percent Thursday, closing at Dhs1.10 (0.29 dollars).

But after a strong first quarter, when the Dubai market advanced 23 percent, investors desperately wait for a continuation of the bullish trend.

According to Gary Dugan, chief investment officer of private banking at Emirates NBD, the rise of risk aversion has had a negative impact on local markets.

The cost of insuring Dubai government debt (CDS) has risen from a low of 335 basis points to 365 basis points in just the last two weeks. "What will help the local equity markets is on-going good news from the corporate sector," Dugan said.