Oman shares rise taking cue from regional bourses

Muscat: Following regional cues, the MSM30 index gained 0.62 per cent to close at 4,302.19 points. MSM Sharia Index closed at 590.46 points, up by 0.05 per cent. Due to a special deal, Al Ahlia Insurance was the most active in terms of volume as well as turnover. The top gainers was Al Hassan Engineering, up 12.50 per cent, while the top loser was Gulf Investment Services which closed lower by 1.39 per cent.
A total number of 263 trades were executed during the day's trading session generating turnover of OMR6.28 million with more than 21.1 million shares changing hands. Out of 37 traded stocks, 11 advanced, 5 declined and 21 remained unchanged. At the session close, Omani investors were net buyers for OMR266,000, followed by foreign investors for OMR95,000 while GCC and Arab were net sellers for OMR361,000 worth of shares.
Financial Index ended positively at 6,807.50 points, up 0.76 per cent. Muscat Finance, Bank Muscat, NBO, Bank Sohar and Al Ahlia Insurance gained 3.70 per cent, 22.50 per cent, 2.29 per cent, 1.81 per cent and 1.70 per cent respectively. Gulf Invest Services and Al Sharqia Investment were down 1.39 per cent and 1.11 per cent respectively.
Industrial Index gained 0.16 per cent to close at 4,997.32 points. Galfar Engineering and Oman Fisheries increased 2.53 per cent and 1.67 per cent respectively. Al Jazeera Steel, down 0.72 per cent was the sole loser.
Services Index ended largely unchanged at 2,277.67 points, up 0.02 per cent. OIFC, up 2.60 per cent was the only gainer while Muscat Gases and Sembcorp Salalah declined 0.96 per cent and 0.58 per cent respectively.