Muscat Stock Exchange index ends week lower by 17 points

Muscat: The main index of the Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX) declined last week by 17 points, breaking the series of increases that lasted for seven weeks, during which it was able to rise more than 450 points and record its best level since the beginning of 2018.

Over the past week, the index witnessed cautious trading and a wave of profit-taking, after significant rises recorded by stocks since late October.

The financial sector index recorded the highest declines and closed at 7822 points, down 44 points, the industry sector index declined 7 points, while the service sector index rose 20 points with the support of shares of Omantel, Omani Shell Marketing, Al Jazeera Services, Dhofar Electricity Generation and a number of other companies included in the sector index sample.

The Sharia index also rose 5 points in the weekly trade.

Last week, the trading value declined to about OMR10.1 million, compared to OMR 18.1 million in the previous week, registering a fall of 44.3 per cent. The number of transactions executed fell by 50 per cent, from 3,945 to 1,969 transactions. Last week, the Muscat Stock Exchange lost OMR65.1 million of its value to end Thursday's trading at OMR23.73 billion.

In last week's trading, investors focused on the shares of Bank Muscat, Bank Sohar International, Muscat Finance, HSBC Bank Oman and Raysut Cement, while most of the liquidity went to the shares of Bank Muscat and Omantel, which accounted for about 42 per cent of the total trading value.

The shares of Bank Muscat witnessed transactions worth OMR2.82 million, representing 28.5 per cent of the total trading value. Omantel shares saw transactions worth OMR1.34 million, accounting for 13.3 per cent of the total trading value. Omani Shell Marketing shares witnessed transactions worth OMR641,000.

During the past week, 68 securities were traded, 21 of which registered an increase, while the prices of 30 securities declined, and 17 securities ended unchanged.
The share of the Oman Oil Marketing Company led the most among stocks that rose along with shares of Al Jazeera Services and Raysut Cement.

Among the corporate news, Desert Hospitality Company announced its preliminary financial results for the fiscal year ending on November 30, 2022. The company's net profits rose to OMR2.4 million, compared to OMR2.1 million in its fiscal year ending on November 30, 2021.

Muscat Finance said that the company's ordinary general assembly agreed to use the company's legal reserve to extinguish the accumulated losses until December 31, 2021. -