Major recovery on Muscat bourse on strong buying support

Business Sunday 09/October/2016 18:20 PM
By: Times News Service
Major recovery on Muscat bourse on strong buying support

Muscat: Shares on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) staged a smart recovery on Sunday, with the general index climbing by 82.38 points (or 1.47 per cent) to close at 5,692.35 points.
“The market was declining in the last three weeks without any major corporate announcements. And most of the stocks have reached an oversold position. Now it is coming back to normal levels,” said Suresh Kumar, head of research at Al Maha Financial Services.
The Oman bourse last week touched a five-month low. Traded volumes on the bourse also touched a recent high at 40.15 million shares on a turnover of OMR7.95 million, which shows the strong buying support from genuine investors.
“What we see is a valuation gap and investors are buying the stocks that have reached attractive levels.” In fact, there was a broad-based buying and the forerunners were blue chip and bank stocks.
Oman bourse was the only market in the Gulf region that showed a recovery on Sunday. Other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) bourses tumbled, with Saudi leading the fall (1.25 per cent), followed by Abu Dhabi (0.62 per cent), Dubai (0.19 per cent), Kuwait (0.17 per cent), Bahrain (0.16 per cent) and Qatar (0.06 per cent).
The major gainers on the Muscat bourse included BankDhofar, Al Izz Islamic Bank, Bank Nizwa, Al Batinah Development and Investment, HSBC Bank Oman and Ahli Bank as the bank stocks were available at attractive prices. The major losers included Renaissance Services, Takaful Oman Insurance, Al Suwadi Power, Al Batinah Power, A’Saffa Food and Oman Chlorine.
Suresh Kumar said that the market trend in the coming days would largely depend on corporate results and a recovery in crude oil prices. “The market is waiting for the third quarter results. We are not expecting any negative surprises.”