01/11/2015 08:20 AST
While its peers in the region made a rebound, the Muscat Securities Market continued its sideways trend and ended on a negative note on the last day of trading on Thursday.
The MSM30 Index ended the day lower by 0.09 per cent at 5,928.15 points, while the MSM Shariah Index was up by 0.11 per cent to close at 912.81 points.
The MSM30 Index market capitalisation stood at RO 6.700 billion on Thursday, the last day of trading in October. But analysts are of the opinion that Friday’s rise in the global markets may soothe the concern prevailing on the regional and local markets to some extent.
World shares rose on Friday and were on course for their best month in four years, led by Europe’s best month in over six years.
In the US, stock indexes finished with their strongest monthly performances, even as they dipped for the day amid a mixed bag of earnings reports.
But low oil prices and the prospect of fiscal tightening in the region next year remain as a major concern, said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
“We do anticipate the stock specific buying to prevail on the ongoing third quarter earnings, which came in as a mixed bag”, said the analyst.
During the last consecutive two weeks, the market opened in the green for trading, but failed to maintain the tempo towards the weekend, he added.
On Thursday, Bank Sohar led in terms of volume while Bank Muscat was the most active in terms of turnover. While DBIH was the top gainer, up by 2.02 per cent, United Power was the day’s top loser, down by 7.51 per cent.
Although financial and services indexes declined by 8 points and 2 points respectively, the Industry Index appreciated by 13 points for the day.
A total of 19.543 million shares were traded during the day amounting to an aggregate turnover of RO 6.256 million.
At session close, Omani investors were net buyers for RO 1.96 million followed by GCC and Arabs for RO 103 million while foreign investors were net sellers for RO 2.07 million worth of shares. Of the 46 traded securities, 16 advanced, 8 declined and 22 remained unchanged.
The Saudi index, which dropped earlier this week on concern about expected government spending and subsidy cuts, climbed as much as 1.4 per cent during the day, bouncing from near technical support at its August low of 6,921 points. Qatar’s index gained 0.4 per cent as telecommunications giant Ooredoo surged 2.8 per cent.
Petrochemical producer Industries Qatar rose 1.3 per cent.
Dubai’s index climbed 0.5 per cent to 3,505 points, bouncing from technical support in the 3,500-point area, which served as a floor in September. Dubai Islamic Bank added 0.9 per cent. Abu Dhabi rose 0.4 per cent as food and beverage company Aghthia Group gained 2.0 per cent after reporting a 17 per cent rise in third-quarter post-tax profit.
Egypt’s index rose 0.4 per cent. But GB Auto, which had risen in recent days on a deal to distribute the cars of China’s Chery, tumbled 4.9 per cent after it said production at some of its factories had been halted for 20 days during September and October by delays in receiving supplies. It said operations were back on track now. In Kuwait, the index edged up 0.1 per cent to 5,775 points, while Bahraini Index edged up 0.1 per cent to 1,250 points.
Oman Daily Observer
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