DUBAI, June 13 (Reuters) - Markets in the United Arab Emirates $(UAE)$ fell in early trade on Friday after Israel launched widescale strikes against Iran.
Israel said on Friday it targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders and that this was the start of a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.
Dubai's main share index .DDFMGI was down 5.1% in early trade and Abu Dhabi's main index .FTFADGI fell 3.5% at open before recovering some ground.
The two indexes were down 2.5% and 1.8% respectively by around 0640 GMT.
Air Arabia AIRA.DU shares in Dubai fell 7.6%, as airlines cleared out of the airspace over Israel, Iran, Iraq and Jordan after the attacks on targets in Iran, scrambling to divert and cancel flights.
Oil prices surged more than 6%, hitting their highest in almost five months and the largest intraday moves for both Brent crude futures and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude contracts since 2022.
The rising tensions in the region also drove investors towards safe-haven assets, with gold prices climbing to their highest levels in nearly two months.
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni in Dubai and Mohd Edrees in Bangalore, editing Alex Richardson)
((Federico.maccioni@thomsonreuters.com; +971 527370852;))
