Muscat - European markets advanced, extending five weeks of gains on better-than-expected Chinese industrial data.
Regional markets remained mixed while the Muscat Securities Market general index closed flat at 6,765.09.
Trading activity remained low as a total of 1,821 trades were executed, generating a turnover of RO9.29mn while 23.58mn shares were exchanged over the counters. Market breadth stood in favour of advancers as of the 50 securities traded for the day 16 advanced while eight declined and 26 stocks remained unchanged.
The top gainers for the day were Sohar Power (+9.9 per cent at RO2.66), Dhofar Insurance (+7.14 per cent at 300bz), Al Anwar Holding (+1.19 per cent at 340bz), Al Jazeira Services (+1.18 per cent at 516bz) and Gulf International Chemicals (+1.04 per cent at 195bz) while the top losers were Construction Materials Industries (-1.35 per cent at 73bz), Al Sharqia Investment Holding (-1.32 per cent at 225bz), Raysut Cement (-1.25 per cent at RO1.97), Oman Fisheries (-0.92 per cent at 108bz) and HSBC Bank Oman (-0.58 per cent at 172bz).
The Financial sector index remained unchanged at the close, while the Industrial sector index inched down 0.04 per cent. The Services sector gained 0.52 per cent on support from Nawras (+0.72 per cent at 558bz) and Renaissance Services (+0.54 per cent at 744bz).
© Muscat Daily 2013
