Retailers halt MSM rally amid outperformance

08/05/2016 06:10 AST

The Muscat Securities Muscat continued its strong outperformance although the bourse shed some points on the last day of trading in the holiday shortened week. Supported by block trades, the MSM30 Index registered its highest trading turnover of 2016 on Tuesday and ended at 5,983.99 points. But the rally was halted by retailers on Wednesday with the benchmark index losing a marginal 0.07 per cent to close at 5,979.75 points. “With firmness in the global oil prices, the market witnessed a shift in its trading pattern to frontline counters against small and mid-cap stocks”, opined an analyst at a local brokerage house.

MSM also stood the best performing bourse in the region in April with its strongest monthly gain of 8.7 per cent since April 2009. Omani investors continued to be net buyers in the last several days. But analysts say that oil still holds the key. “Most stock markets in the region traded with a weak bias on Wednesday after oil prices slipped”, pointed out the analyst who did not want to be named. Last week, the Brent slid 6 per cent for its biggest weekly decline since January. The drop came after profit-taking by investors early in the week on April’s gain of 20 per cent or more in the two crude benchmarks.

“But on Friday, supported by a dip in dollar, oil prices edged up giving solace to investors”, he said, adding “at current level the market is expected to see some consolidation”.

On Wednesday, while the financial index and industrial index ended lower by 39 points and 16 points, respectively, the services index ended gained 25 points.

MSM Shariah Index ended flat for the day. MSM30 Index market capitalization as at the end of the day stood at RO 6.609 billion.

A total of 20.962 million shares were traded during the day amounting to aggregate turnover of RO 3.666 million.

At the session close, Omani Investors were net buyers for RO 13,000 while GCC and Arab investors remained net sellers for RO 7,000 followed by Foreign Investors for RO 6,000 worth of shares.

Galfar Engineering was the most active in terms of volume as well as turnover. Global Financial Investment was the top gainer, up 7.41 per cent while Gulf Investment Services was today’s top loser, down 4.44 per cent.

In the region, Dubai’s stock market fell 1.5 per cent, extending the previous session’s losses. Most Dubai companies have now reported first-quarter earnings, many of which were in line with or fell below expectations. Emaar Properties, which early this week reported net profits in line with expectations, retreated a further 2.7 per cent.

Riyadh’s index shed 0.2 per cent in the first 45 minutes of trade in modest volume. Shares in the retail and petrochemical sectors were the main laggards.

In Abu Dhabi, the index was weighed down by energy-related shares. Dana Gas and Abu Dhabi National Energy dropped 1.9 and 5.0 per cent. The main index slipped 0.1 per cent.

Oman Daily Observer