Omani stocks extended their longest-losing streak on selling pressure from international institutions. The MSM30 Index slipped for a 19th day to the lowest in almost 12 months.
The bourse’s general index MSM30, which is the barometer of the trend, fell by 1.69 per cent or 95.44 points to close at 5,547.85 points on Monday, on the back of heavy selling by foreign institutional investors.
Oman’s local bourse witnessed a major fall in share prices amid weak sentiment and a re-adjustment in the MSCI market indices.
The market has been declining for more than two weeks now in view of slumping oil prices.
Market sources said investors are eagerly waiting for proposals in next year’s budget for raising revenue at a time when oil revenue has shown a substantial fall.
Several foreign institutional investors have been selling for quite some time and it continued on Monday as well, which resulted in a drop in several blue-chip stocks.
The market’s traded volumes, except on Monday, were also low.
The adjustment in the MSCI Frontier markets indices, which is generally carried out every year by the end of November, also affected the Muscat bourse.
Amid relatively higher trading volumes, sustained selling pressure resulted in MSM30 Index’s biggest one day drop since August.
“Given the vulnerability of Oman compared to other GCC countries, regional and international investors are reducing positions or are becoming extremely selective,” said Abu Dhabi- based Sachin Mohindra, a money manager at Invest AD Asset Management.
“Bad economic news is translating into poor earnings growth, and that is what investors are reacting to.”
Gross domestic product will probably expand 3.5 per cent in 2015, according to the median of seven economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg, compared with an average of 4.5 percent for the previous five years.
As many as 1,044 trades were executed on Monday, generating turnover of OMR4.69 million. Out of 49 traded securities, three advanced, 29 fell and 17 remained unchanged.