Muscat - European and Asian equities fell from multi-year highs as the yen strengthened and treasuries rose while US equities gained on speculation that the Federal Reserve will maintain its economic stimulus. Regional markets ended mixed while the Muscat Securities Market general index inched up 0.10 per cent to close at 6,648.98.
Trading activity remained low as a total of 2,026 trades were executed, generating a turnover of RO10.57mn, while 35.02mn shares were exchanged over the counters. Market breadth stood in favour of advancers as of the 54 securities traded for the day 20 advanced while 14 declined and 20 stocks remained unchanged.
Sharqiyah Desalination continued to gain investor interest and topped the list of gainers with a positive close of 7.36 per cent at RO4.96. The other gainers were Gulf Investment Services (+3.21 per cent at 193bz), Al Hassan Engineering (+3.08 per cent at 268bz), Oman Cables (+2.83 per cent at RO2.00) and Dhofar Cattle Feed (+2.56 per cent at 240bz) while the top losers were Oman Chlorine (-5.71 per cent at 660bz), Majan Glass (-2.44 per cent at 320bz), United Insurance (-1.79 per cent at 330bz), Oman Oil (-1.18 per cent at RO2.10) and Renaissance Services (-1.14 per cent at 692bz).
The Financial sector index edged higher by 0.31 per cent with support from National Bank of Oman (+1.72 per cent at 296bz) and Ominvest (+0.89 per cent at 454bz). The Industrial sector index added 0.40 per cent with gains from Oman Cables and Al Hassan Engineering while the Services sector index slipped 0.25 per cent.
© Muscat Daily 2013
