Muscat Securities Market (MSM) indices declined at the end of Thursday’s session. The benchmark index (MSM30) plunged by 0.04% or 2.64 points and closed at 7545.020 points, while the Sharia index rose by 0.12% to 1084.58 points.

Montassir Madbouli, GB Trader senior technical analyst, said that although the volume was low and the benchmark index showed weakness at 7350-7400 points, it succeeded to rise penetrating 7500 points.

Madbouli told Mubasher in a statement that the benchmark index of MSM closed the last session of the week in the red hurt by limited profit taking. He expected that the market will be vulnerable to profit taking from a time to another during its current way up.

The senior technical analyst advised to undertake profit taking at buying levels during the uptrend and moving the stop-loss orders during this rally. As for short and long-term investors, Madbouli advised to keep open transactions in the market as long as the index does not keep trading below 7200 points.

Liquidity declined compared with previous levels. Total of 22.4 million shares were traded through 1150 transactions at a turnover of OMR 5.6 million, whereas yesterday, total of 27.9 million shares were traded through 1706 transactions at a turnover of OMR 9.004 million.

Shares of 58 companies were traded, 17 declined, 17 rose and the remaining 24 ones kept flat.

The benchmark index was pressured by the services sector which shed 0.09%, while the financial and industrial sectors rose by 0.25% and 0.10% respectively.

The top three losers were Al Anwar Holding which plunged by 2.42% to OMR 0.322, Al Madina Investment which declined by 2.06% to OMR 0.095 and Oman Investment and Finance which lost 1.18% to OMR 0.252.

On the other hand, the top three gainers were Dhofar Cattle Feed which rose by 9.09% to OMR 0.180, Construction Materials Industry which increased by 3.77% to OMR 0.055 and Muscat Finance which added 3.45% to OMR 0.150.

Translated by: Mohamed Massoud