Financial blue chips drive Muscat bourse recovery

Business Tuesday 03/April/2018 18:03 PM
By: Times News Service
Financial blue chips drive Muscat bourse recovery

Muscat: Driven by financial blue chips, the MSM30 Index continued its recovery to close at 4,775.27 points, a gain of 0.53 per cent. The MSM Sharia Index ended at 677.06 points, down 0.07 per cent. HSBC Bank was the most active in terms of volume while Bank Muscat was the leader in terms of turnover. The top gainer was National Gas, up 5.49 per cent while the top loser was Galfar Engineering, down 2.73 per cent.
A total number of 1,506 trades were executed on Tuesday, generating turnover of OMR6.08 million with 37.77 million shares changing hands. Out of 52 traded securities, 18 advanced, 12 declined and 22 remained unchanged. At the session close, Foreign investors switched to net buyers for OMR625,000 followed by GCC & Arab investors for OMR200,000 while Omani investors were net sellers for OMR825,000 worth of shares.
Financial Index rallied strongly to finish at 7,236.01 points, up 0.84 per cent. NBO, Gulf Investment Services, Oman & Emirates Holding, Ahli Bank and Muscat Finance gained 3.83 per cent, 2.88 per cent, 2.50 per cent, 1.97 per cent and 1.96 per cent respectively. United Finance, Al Madina Investments, Al Ahlia Insurance, Al Anwar Holding and Al Madina Takaful declined 1.80 per cent, 1.75 per cent, 1.64 per cent, 1.23 per cent and 1.08 per cent respectively.
Industrial Index declined 0.10 per cent to close at 6,611.43 points. Construction Materials, National Aluminium, Oman Flour Mills and Raysut Cement gained 3.70 per cent, 3.55 per cent, 0.60 per cent and 0.55 per cent respectively. Galfar Engineering, Oman Fisheries and Gulf International Chemicals decreased 2.73 per cent, 1.54 per cent and 1.42 per cent respectively.
Services Index ended at 2,637.47 points, up 0.68 v. National Gas, Renaissance Services, OIFC and Omantel gained 5.49 per cent, 4.21 per cent, 1.60 per cent and 0.45 per cent respectively. Oman National Engineering, Al Batinah Power and Ooredoo declined 1.67 per cent, 0.73 per cent and 0.40 per cent respectively.