Shares on the Muscat
Securities Market (MSM) showed a weak trend at the end of February 2019, with
the MSM 30 Index slumping by 17.2% to close at 4,144.5 points from 5,003.4
points for the same period of 2018.
Among different sub-sectors, manufacturing sub-index
plunged by 28.4% to 4,872 points in February 2019, compared to 6,802 points for
the same period of last year, according to the latest monthly statistics
released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The financial services sub-index fell by 9.1% to
6,691 points in February 2019 from 7,365 points in the same month of 2018.
Similarly, services sub-sector index fell 21% to 2,079 points from 2,632 points
during the period under review, the NCSI data show.
Further, the market turnover at MSM fell 2.3% to
OMR105.4 million in the first two months of 2019, from OMR107.9 million for the
same period of 2018.
Also, the net purchase of Omani investors on the Muscat
bourse was at OMR4.91 million in February 2019, against OMR1.66 million for the
same period of 2018, the NCSI report showed.
However, GCC and Arab investors were net sellers to
the tune of OMR6.14 million and OMR25,000, respectively, at the end of February
2019. Other foreign investors were also net sellers to the extent of OMR1.25
million worth of shares in February 2019, against OMR45,000 million for the
same period of the previous year.
The data also showed that there was a 10.5% rise in
total number of shares traded on the local bourse, reaching 662.42 million in February
2019, against 599.59 million shares traded for the same period of 2018.
In 2018, the Muscat bourse closed with the MSM
30 Index ending at 4,323.7 points, while the market turnover stood at OMR762.71
million.