Mubasher: The main index of the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) ended Thursday in the red zone after decreasing 0.87% or 43.63 points to reach 4,999.37 points.

Phoenix Power, Galfar Engineering and Contracting, and Oman Fisheries stocks declined 4.17%, 3.95%, and 3.05%, respectively.

The services sector dropped 1.64% as Renaissance Services retreated 6.12% and Port Services Corporation fell 4.52%.

The financial sector shed 0.74% after Al Madina Investment lost 2.99%, followed by Al Sharqiya Investment Holding with 2.78%, and Al Madina Takaful with 1.74%.

Trading volume soared to 40.27 million shares on Thursday against 7.68 million shares on Wednesday, while traded value increased to OMR 12.29 million from OMR 1.54 million.

Sembcorp Salalah Power and Water Company’s stock was the most active in terms of trading volume with 28.64 million shares exchanged, generating OMR 6.87 million.

Earlier on Thursday, the MSM benchmark index levelled down 0.25% or 12.82 points reaching 5,030.18 points.