The MSM 30 Index ended August with a 20.3% fall at 5871.6 points as against 7367.2 points last year. Manufacturing Index led the decline at 25.3% to 7604, while Financial and Services Indices tanked by 20.6% and 13.4% to 7,068 and 3,260 respectively. A total of 3.327 billion shares were traded by the end of August this year with a turnover of OMR 878.24 million during the January-August period as against 4.59 billion shares valued at OMR 1.50 billion during the same period a year ago. This marked a whopping 41.7% decrease in the total value of trade, and a 27.6% fall in the number of traded shares. Omanis made a net investment of OMR 57.119 million in stocks till August end, as against OMR 2.1 million last year, while investors from the Gulf region bought stocks worth OMR 39.167 million. Arab investors on the other hand had a net sale of stocks worth OMR 39 million at the Muscat Securities Market. Net sale of other foreigners touched OMR 57.27 million, while they made a net investment of OMR 23.21 million in the comparable period in 2014. Phoenix Energy ranked first among the most traded securities over the January-August period involving 69.54 million shares accounting for 21% of the total shares traded. Anwar Holdings occupied the second spot with 52.05 million of its shares being traded, constituting a share of 15%. As many as 22.91 million shares of Bank Muscat were traded accounting for 7% of the total traded shares.