10/04/2016 08:03 AST
The Muscat Securities Market continued to witness the positive momentum on the back of upbeat regional sentiments as the oil prices made substantial gains during the past weeks. The benchmark MSM30 Index zoomed to 5,609.70 points amid high volumes and turnover. MSM Shariah Index ended at 851.64 points, up 0.66 per cent. MSM30 Index market capitalization as at the end of the day stood at RO 6.246 billion. The market is expected to take further direction from the first quarter earnings, said an analyst at a local brokerage firm, adding, “dividend reinvestments will be another factor to support the bourse”.
Two companies announced their first quarter results last week. Al Kamil Power reported net profit of RO 731,000, while Hotel Management Co reported net profit of RO 1.033 million for the first three months of 2016. “We believe buying to emerge in frontline counters in local and GCC equities, as stocks look for attractive post dividend adjustments”, said the analyst. Also, the market is keenly looking at the outcome of April 17 meeting between Opec meeting. This would decide the market trend for rest of the quarters’, he added.
On the last day of trading on Thursday, Al Anwar Holding was the most active in terms of volume as well as turnover. Oman Flour Mills was the top gainer up by 7.84 per cent, while Global Financial Investment continued to be the top loser, down 8.70 per cent.
The financial and industry Indices ended the day higher by 77 points and 44 points, respectively. The Services Index ended the day 21 points above its previous close.
Foreign investors ended the day as net sellers to an extent of RO 301,000. GCC and Omani investors emerged as net buyers to an extent of RO 153,000 and RO 90,000 respectively.
The local bourse was one of the top performing markets in the region in March.
MSM Index managed to close the month higher by 1.3 per cent. All the sectorial indices closed the month in green. The Financial, Services, Industrial and Shariah closed higher during the month by 3.7 per cent, 0.7 per cent, 1.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.
At the same time, the regional markets too made gains during the last week.
The Saudi index gained 0.7 per cent, led higher by petrochemical firms that were lifted by the oil price rise. Saudi Basic Industries rose 1 per cent and Saudi Kayan climbed by the same amount after announcing the start of commercial operations at a new butanol plant.
Dubai’s index was up by 1 per cent as all ten of the most heavily traded stocks gained. Builder Drake & Scull, which has been rebounding from a record low in recent weeks, was the most heavily traded and jumped by 11.1 per cent.
Abu Dhabi added 1.2 per cent as Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank bounced from technical support on its March lows of 6.32-6.35 dirhams, climbing 2.5 per cent to 6.48 dirhams.
Qatar gained 1.3 per cent, helped by Qatar National Bank’s (QNB) 1.4 per cent rise after posting slightly better than expected first-quarter earnings.
Gulf Warehousing again traded heavily after bourse data showed foreign ownership in the company had increased to 26.2 per cent. The stock closed 2.3 per cent lower on Thursday. Egypt’s index recovered from early losses to edge into positive territory by the close, up 0.3 per cent.
Oman Daily Observer
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