Oil halted its decline near the lowest price in more than six years.

Market volume and turnover slumped 74.75 per cent and 95.81 per cent respectively in the absence of special deals.

The Financial index added 0.33 per cent at 6504.63 while the Industrial gauge inched up to 6817.85. The Services index however ended down 0.15 per cent at 3059.05. The MSM Shariah index put on 0.13 per cent at 863.13.

Al Hassan Engineering (+2.82 per cent) Oman Investment and Finance (+2.44 per cent) and Ominvest (+2.37 per cent) were among the top gainers of the day while chief losers included ACWA Power Barka (-9.85 per cent) Majan Glass (-4.55 per cent) and Al Jazeera Steel Products (-2 per cent).

West Texas Intermediate for February delivery gained as much as 45 cents to US$36.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at US$36 as of 1:52pm London time. Brent for February settlement rose 0.2 per cent to US$36.41 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange trading at a 41-cent premium to WTI. The contract fell 1.4 per cent to $36.35 on Monday the lowest close since July 2004.

By special arrangement with Oman Arab Bank - Investment Management Group

- With inputs from Bloomberg