Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Following the regional trend, MSM30 Index also gained 1.54 per cent to close at 4,941.75 points. With gains of 0.55 per cent, the MSM Sharia Index ended at 804.35 points. Al Anwar Holding was the most active in terms of volume as well as turnover. Up 6.52 per cent, Al Anwar Holding was the top gainer while the top loser was Al Hassan Engineering, down 1.54 per cent.
As many as 930 trades were executed on Sunday, generating turnover of OMR3.35 million with 14.5 million shares changing hands. Out of 41 traded securities, 25 advanced, four declined and 12 remained unchanged. Omani Investors were net buyers for OMR778,000 while Foreign Investors were net sellers for OMR705,000 followed by GCC & Arab Investors for omr73,000 worth of shares.
Financial Index led the rebound to close at 5,872.69 points, up 2.22 per cent. Al Anwar Holding, Bank Muscat, Al Batinah Development, Bank Sohar and Gulf Investment Services gained 6.52 per cent, 6.28 per cent, 4.29 per cent, 4.17 per cent and 3.80 per cent respectively.
Industrial Index closed at 6,463.58 points, up 0.34 per cent. Al Jazeera Steel, Galfar Engineering, Gulf International Chemicals and Al Maha Ceramics increased 5.07 per cent, 1.96 per cent, 0.77 per cent and 0.59 per cent respectively. Al Hassan Engineering, down 1.54 per cent was the only sector loser.
Services Index advanced 0.76 per cent to close at 2,829.95 points. OIFC, Renaissance Services, United Power, Phoenix Power and Ooredoo gained 5.63 per cent, 4.50 per cent, 1.76 per cent, 1.55 per cent and 1.31 per cent respectively. Shell Oman Marketing, Al Jazeera Services and Sembcorp Salalah decreased 0.51 per cent, 0.43 per cent and 0.42 per cent respectively.
Gulf stocks surge
The DFM General Index climbed 5.2 per cent, the most in more than a year, to close at 2,757.08 as traders exchanged 415 million shares, 63 per cent above the 12-month daily average volume. Qatar’s QE Index and Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index climbed 4.6 per cent and 2.7 percent, respectively. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index soared as much as 6.8 per cent before paring gains to 3.6 per cent at 2:23pm in Riyadh.
Middle Eastern shares rallied after oil advanced the most since August on Friday. While governments in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have attempted to diversify their economies away from crude, the commodity remains the region’s biggest source of revenue. The equity advance also follows the biggest surge in world stocks since June 2012 on speculation central banks will expand stimulus measures to counter turmoil in financial markets.
“The global rally and oil price recovery is a great signal for investors here to buy,” said Hisham Khairy, the Dubai-based head of institutional trade at Mena Financial Services, one of the United Arab Emirates’ largest brokerages. “If tomorrow the market opens higher, it would offer a great selling opportunity,” said Khairy, who recommends “exiting the market” because the factors that led to the selloff across the region haven’t been resolved.
Oil rises
Brent crude, a pricing benchmark for half of the world’s oil, soared 10 per cent to $32.18 a barrel on Friday. UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei sees the price of oil stabilising either at the end of this year or the beginning of 2017. The GCC is home to about 30 per cent of the world’s proven reserves.
The gauge that tracks some of the region’s top companies climbed the most since August. Saudi Basic Industries Corp., one of the world’s biggest chemicals manufacturers by sales, was the biggest contributor to the Bloomberg GCC 200 Index’s increase as the stock rose 4.8 percent.
Al Rajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia followed with a 6.5 per cent gain. The lender’s board recommended a dividend of SR1 per share for the second half of 2015 after the bank posted a 28 per cent increase in fourth-quarter profit.
Saudi Arabian Airlines plans to raise as much as SR5 billion ($1.3 billion) from the sale of Islamic bonds in the second quarter to refinance loans and buy planes, Director General Saleh Al Jasser said on Friday.
Kuwait’s SE Price Index advanced 0.6 per cent and Egypt’s EGX 30 Index climbed 3.4 per cent and Iran’s TEDPIX Index rose 1.2 per cent, according to the Tehran Stock Exchange website. Bahrain’s Bourse All Share Index and the Palestine General Index were the region’s only decliners, retreating 0.6 and 0.3 per cent, respectively.
