Plan for investment fund sends Oman stocks soaring

Muscat: A reported decision by the Omani government to set up a 150 million Omani riyal (Dh1.4 billion) investment fund to prop up the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) sent the stocks soaring by three per cent here on the last trading day of the week.

The government-owned Arabic daily yesterday said in a front-page report that an investment fund worth 150 million riyals would be set up by Government and other companies to support MSM.

According to the report, Maqbool Bin Ali Bin Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Capital Market Authority, said the government will launch a 150 million riyal investment fund with a 60 per cent contribution (90 million riyals). The private sector and pension funds will contribute the remaining 40 per cent. The investment fund aims to create market stability in MSM and restore investor confidence.

However, no further information was provided by the daily except that the finer details of the proposed fund would be decided in the coming weeks and a formal investment would be made next month.

A senior market analyst said there was active buying in frontline stocks, including Raysut Cement and National Bank of Oman.

"The market witnessed increased activity of nearly 11 million shares and there were 37 advances compared to 6 declines - a sign of improved investor participation," Sunil Dhall, vice-president with Gulf Baader Capital Markets, told Gulf News. "This will improve the confidence and remove the uncertainty as the fund was a long time in the offing."

However, analysts cautioned investors not to expect any major upsurge in the market as the aim of the fund was to stabilise the market and prevent panic selling.