Heavy selling pressure drags Oman shares lower

Business Monday 05/March/2018 18:01 PM
By: Times News Service
Heavy selling pressure drags Oman shares lower

Muscat: Selling pressure in telecom stocks and Bank Sohar pushed the MSM30 Index to end lower by 0.30 per cent at 4988 points. MSM Sharia Index ended at 707.11 points, marginally down by 0.09 per cent. Galfar Engineering was the most active in terms of volume as well as turnover. The news of contract winning coupled with favourable arbitration award resulted in the company closing as the top gainer, up by 4.71 per cent, while the top loser was Construction Materials, down 4.00 per cent.
A total number of 667 trades were executed on Monday, generating turnover of OMR2.11 million with 14.96 million shares changing hands. Out of 40 traded securities, 4 advanced, 18 declined and another 18 remained unchanged. At the session close, GCC & Arab were net buyers for OMR36,000 while Omani investors were net sellers for OMR26,000 followed by Foreign investors for OMR11,000 worth of shares.
Financial Index lost 0.41 per cent at 7367.68 points. Sharqiya Investments, Taageer Finance, Oman & Emirates Investment Holding, Bank Sohar, and Gulf Investment Services fell by 2.54 per cent, 2.38 per cent, 1.74 per cent, 1.28 per cent, and 1.10 per cent respectively.
Industrial Index rose by 0.42 per cent to finish at 6839.20 points. Galfar Engineering, National Aluminium, and Oman Cement increased by 4.71 per cent, 4.00 per cent, and 1.03 per cent respectively. Construction Materials and Oman Fisheries fell by 4.00 per cent and 1.44 per cent respectively.
Services Index was down by 0.72 per cent to end at 2622.74 points. United Power was the only sector gainer, and closed up by 0.67 per cent. Renaissance Services, OIFC, Ooredoo, National Gas, and Oman Telecom were down by 3.03 per cent, 1.48 per cent, 1.12 per cent, 0.99 per cent, and 0.93 per cent respectively.