Oman shares continue to fall on weak sentiments

Muscat: Shares on the Muscat bourse continued its decline on weak sentiment. The MSM30 continued its weak run and ended the session at 5,043.00 points, a loss of 0.41 per cent. The MSM Sharia Index closed at 749.27 points, down 0.82 per cent. Oman Fisheries was the most active in terms of volume while Bank Muscat led in terms of turnover. Wednesday’s top gainer was Oman Fisheries, up 3.15 per cent, while top loser was National Aluminium, down 6.21 per cent.
During the session, a total of 428 trades were executed, generating turnover of OMR1.54 million with more than 7.68 million shares changing hands. Out of 32 traded securities, 3 advanced, 12 declined, and 17 remained unchanged. Omani Investors stayed net buyers for OMR214,000 followed by GCC and Arab Investors for OMR51,000 while foreign Investors were net sellers for OMR265,000 worth of shares.
Financial Index closed at 7,584.09 points, down 0.21 per cent Gulf Investment Services, Al Sharqia Investments, Al Madina Investment, Al Izz Bank and Bank Nizwa declined 2.47 per cent, 1.82 per cent, 1.47 per cent, 1.25 per cent and 1.06 per cent respectively.
Industrial Index had strong loss of 0.76 per cent to finish at 6,861.80 points. Oman Fisheries, up 3.15 per cent, was the sole sector gainer. National Aluminium, Raysut Cement, Oman Flour Mills and Al Anwar Ceramics declined 6.21 per cent, 5.67 per cent, 1.83 per cent and 0.79 per cent respectively.
Services Index ended at 2,525.94 points, down 0.44 per cent. Oman National Engineering and Omantel gained 0.64 per cent and 0.44 per cent respectively. National Gas and Phoenix Power decreased 3.82 per cent and 3.23 per cent respectively.
Sensex rises 244 points
The Sensex on Wednesday bounced by over 244 to close at 31,955 after metal, healthcare and FMCG stocks set the tone on the back of better-than-expected corporate earnings so far.
Foreign dollar inflows and positive global cues kept risk appetite on.
The market opened positive on overnight earnings numbers of FMCG major Hindustan Unilever coupled with a firming trend in Asia, tracking another record close at Wall Street.
The Sensex after a gap up opening advanced to hit a high of 31,978.89, before settling at 31,955.35, a gain of 244.36 points, or 0.77 per cent.
The gauge had retreated from record by plunging 363.79 points in the previous session.
The 50-share NSE Nifty stayed in the positive zone and retook the 9,900-mark to hit a high of 9,905.05 as buying paced up towards the fag end. It settled higher by 72.45 points, or 0.74 per cent, at 9,899.60.
Bharti Airtel stole the show by climbing 3.21 per cent while Dr Reddy's surged 2.01 per cent.
"Pharma sector outperformed followed by a series of US FDA approvals, which offered bargaining opportunity to investors. Trump's failure to repeal Obamacare and a strengthening rupee will keep the outlook intact," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Coal India, TCS, Sun Pharma and Kotak Bank also contributed to the upmove, rising by up to 2.66 per cent. Shares of state-owned HPCL, Indian Oil Corporation, BPCL and ONGC buzzed with activity, largely on the back of merger talks, which recorded a rise of up to 4.14 per cent.
Hindustan Unilever, whose net profit grew 9 per cent, succumbed to profit-booking at higher levels and finished in the red.
Elsewhere, Asian markets were mostly higher as investors turned their focus to policy meetings by central banks in Japan and the EU.
Besides, Europe was trading in the green too.
BSE metal rose the most by 1.95 per cent followed by healthcare 1.78 per cent, realty 1.50 per cent and FMCG 1.49 per cent.
Mid-cap and small-cap indices firmed up 1.01 per cent and 0.99 per cent, respectively.