Saturday 27 / April / 2024
Muscat: The Oman stock market experienced a modest uptick this week, with the main index closing 0.44 percent higher. The main index recorded limited movements this week, trading within a range mostly, according to an analyst.
“The market has stagnated to a certain extent over the last three weeks after an initial rebound at the start of the year. As a result, it could be exposed to another round of price corrections in particular after failing to reach new highs,”George Khoury Global Head of Education and Research at CFI.
“At the same time, trading volumes have been improving compared to the previous two weeks and returned to levels seen at the beginning of the year. Value traded improved as well but remained below the levels observed at the start of the month,” he said.
Sector performances were mixed and were led by the financial sector which exhibited modest gains, climbing by 0.14 percent only. The services sector also recorded small gains with a 0.06 percent increase over this week and stabilised after strong losses during the previous week. The industrial sector however declined by 0.48 percent, returning to the negative territory after two weeks of gains.
In the financial sector, stock performances were mixed as well. The two most traded stocks in the sector moved in opposing directions, Sohar International Bank saw a 2.8 percent increase, while Bank Muscat experienced a 0.37 percent decline.
In the services sector, Oman Telecom reported a 1.01 percent decrease, following two negative trading sessions after peaking in the middle of the week. Conversely, OQ Gas Networks showed a positive change of 0.67 percent, recovering some of the losses from earlier this month while Abraj recorded a strong 5.3 percent increase.
Among industrial stocks, Oman Cables Industry saw a modest drop of 0.39 percent but maintained its strong bullish trend from 2021. Meanwhile, Galfar Engineering and Contracting and Al Anwar Ceramic posted gains of 1.3 percent and 3.13 percent, respectively.
