Muscat Securities Market (MSM) hit its highest record in 52 weeks to reach 6558.46 points in January, jumping 3.39% or 215.24 points, while the Shariah Index rose 1.55% to close at 981.28 points.


Technical Analyst Amr Saber said that the MSM recovered in January after a series of declines in the last three months of 2014 due to the plunge in the oil prices. 


It is worth noting that the oil prices dropped 50% since June 2014 and hit their lowest levels in six years in December.


The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expected that the demand for OPEC crude would be 28.8 million barrels a day this year, which is 100,000 barrels a day less than its expectations in December.


A number of OPEC countries including China and Venezuela called for reducing oil production, which reaches 30 million barrels, in order to raise the oil prices.


Saber added that Omani and Gulf purchases were the main reason behind the MSM’s rise as they bought the shares after their prices dropped to attractive levels.


Omanis represented 79.6% of the total purchases compared to 73.6% of the total sales, while Gulf investors accounted for 6.7% compared to 5.8% of sales.


The financial sector topped all sectors, rising 4%, followed by the service and the industrial sectors by 1.93% and 1.91% respectively.  


The top gainers were Al Hassan Engineering and Oman & Emirates investment Holding by 4.8% and 3.3% respectively.