The Muscat Securities Market saw some consolidation on the last two days of trading this week. The benchmark MSM 30 Index closed on a positive note with a marginal gain of 0.35 per cent at 5,577.29 points.

At the same time, analysts expect the market activity to remain subdued in view of the peaking summer season and the forthcoming holy month of Ramadhan.
The MSM 30 Index earnings, which bottomed out during the first half of 2011 are expected to show an increase by 20.7 per cent year on year during the current fiscal.

This month much activity is expected on the local bourse with the rights issuances of BankMuscat, ahlibank and the mandatory convertible bonds issuance of Renaissance Services.

In yesterday’s trading, Bank Nizwa was the most active in terms of volume while BankMuscat was the highest in terms of turnover.

National Bank of Oman was the top gainer for the day and closed up by 2.49 per cent, while Ahlia Converting Industries was the top loser for the day and was down by 5.71 per cent. A total number of 720 trades were executed generating turnover of RO 1.86 million with over 6.99 million shares changing hands.

Of the 45 traded stocks, 11 advanced, 15 declined, and 19 remained unchanged. At the session close, foreign investors switched to net buyers for RO 186,000 followed by GCC and Arab investors for RO 72,000 while Omani investors were net sellers for RO 261,000 worth of shares.

The industrial sector index posted a marginal gain of 0.09 per cent and closed at 6,675.080 points.

Among the gainers were Gulf International Chemicals, Oman Cables, Dhofar Cattlefeed, Jazeera Steel Product and Oman Cement increased by 2.00 per cent, 1.13 per cent, 0.74 per cent, 0.36 per cent and 0.16 per cent respectively.

In the services sector OIFC was the only loser with a loss of 0.59 per cent to close at RO 0.170. Renaissance Services, Nawras and Oman Telecom declined by 1.53 per cent, 0.80 per cent and 0.30 per cent respectively. OIFC was the only loser and was down by 0.59 per cent to close at RO 0.17.

Financial sector Index lost 0.28 per cent and closed at 6,210.39 points. National Bank of Oman, HSBC Oman and BankMuscat increased by 2.49 per cent, 1.26 per cent and 0.92 per cent respectively. United Finance, Global Financial Investment, Al Anwr Holding, Oman & Emirates and Oman United Insurance declined by 3.70 per cent, 2.27 per cent, 1.79 per cent, 1.70 per cent and 1.33 per cent respectively.

Last month, except for the services index, rest of the sectoral indices closed in negative territory.

The financial index closed the month down by 4.3 per cent as the Inv Holding companies had a disappointing month declining more than 10 per cent. Industrial Index fell by 3.0 per cent as stocks like Voltamp, National Aluminium, Oman Fisheries and Gulf Int chemicals dropped. While the Services sector managed to close in green. The sector major, Shell Oman closed higher by 5.3 per cent amid lower volumes.

In June 2012, the traded volumes improved on the back of listing of Bank Nizwa.
Arabs and Omani Investors emerged as net sellers to an extent of RO 64,000 and RO 7.355 million respectively, last month.