Monday 05 / May / 2025
Muscat: The main index of Muscat Securities Market (MSM) has cut its losses to 342 points in 2019 as against 775 points in 2018. This is the third year in a row for MSM index to close on a low.
Over the past three years, MSM lacked local incentives in the backdrop of persisting oil price fluctuations. Last year's dealings reflected a number of local developments that impacted the money market negatively, including a decrease in the performance of various public stock companies listed on the MSM.
Most global and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) securities markets witnessed an upward trend. Nasdaq's index rose by 35.2 per cent, while Dow Jones index increased by 22.3 per cent.
MSM was the only GCC market to post an index decline, following a drop of 7.9 per cent, and it closed at 3,981 points. Kuwait's securities market had the best performance up by 23.6 per cent, followed by Bahrain up by 20.4 per cent, Dubai bourse up 9.2 per cent and Saudi stock market up by 7.1 up.
Sectoral indices of MSM registered an overall decline last year, with the industry sector losing 784 points, down 15.7 per cent, while the finance sector lost 477 points, lower by 7 per cent. The services sector's index dropped by 17.1 per cent after losing 393 points and the Sharia index lost 9.4 per cent or 55 points.
Yet, the main index posted a rise in three months: August by 244 points, September by 12 points and October by 64 points. But the index's performance suffered a decline in the other nine months, with the lowest rate registered in March by 160 points, followed by January by 157 points and July by 124 points.
Last year, MSM was impacted negatively through a drop in the performance rates of 69 securities, as against 22 securities whose prices increased, while the prices of 23 securities remained unchanged.
The share price of Al Anwar Ceramics posted the best performances, up by 88.7 per cent—from 71 baisas to 134 baisas.
The share of OIFC's share increased by 41.5 per cent from 77 baisas to 109 baisas, while Al Jazeera's share rose by 37.6 per cent from 109 points to 150 points.
The share of Al-Ula led the group of losing shares, retreating by 92.8 per cent from 530 baisas to 38 baisas. The share of SMN Power dropped by 81.1 per cent, retreating from 372 baisas to 70 baisas. The share of Financial Services also dropped from 175 baisas to 55 baisas, 68.5 down by per cent.
Leading companies witnessed low performance, the most significant of which was the share of Omantel's which dropped from 788 baisas to 600 baisas, a decrease of 23.8 per cent, while the share of Al-Maha Petroleum Products Marketing dropped from 932 baisas to 728 baisas, down by 21.8 per cent, and the share of Oman Cement retreated from 300 baisas to 235 baisas, lower by 21.6 per cent.
In terms of trading, the value of trading at MSM last year dropped to OMR711.5 million as against OMR762.7 million in 2018, a decrease of 7.6 per cent. The number of performed deals also dropped by 150,000 to 118,000.
The MSM's average of daily trading in 2019 stood at OMR2.9 million as against OMR3.1 million in 2018. The number of traded securities in 2019 stood at OMR4.89 billion as against OMR4.20 billion in 2018.
The value of non-Omanis shares stood at OMR235 million, constituting 23 per cent of the total value of trading, while the value of their selling stood at OMR253 million or 34.5 per cent of total dealings. Thus the net non-Omani trading registered a decline of OMR17.5 million.
Ooredoo led the most traded companies in terms of the value of trading, garnering 21.3 per cent of the total value of trading, or OMR152.1 million, while Bank Muscat occupied 11.6 per cent of the total value of trading, followed by Bank Sohar OMR33.3 million or 4.6 per cent.
The month of August witnessed the highest rate of trading, standing at OMR165 million, followed by December OMR79.2 per cent and October OMR54.8 million. November registered the lowest rate of trading OMR32.4 million.
