Saturday 28 / June / 2025
Muscat: The main index of the Muscat Stock Exchange last week gave up gains it recorded in the previous week, and fell by 115 points, after rising in the week ending on February 9 by 49 points.
Last week's declines came amid the poor performance of most of the leading stocks at a time when investors reduced their purchases pending the initial public offering (IPO) of Abraaj Energy Services Company.
It is worth noting that Abraj Energy Services has offered 49 per cent of its shares for public subscription. The shares will be provided in two parallel categories. The first category will be allocated to major investors and will account for 85 per cent maximum of the total public offering. It will be directed to major and corporate investors in Oman and international investors. The subscription price in the first category will be set within the range of OMR0.242 to OMR0.249 per share.
The second category of shares will be offered for small investors and will account for no less than 15 per cent of the total public offering and will be allocated to individual investors in the Sultanate of Oman. The shares of this second category will be offered at a maximum discounted price of OMR0.224 per share, calculated at a maximum price of OMR0.249 less a discount of 10 per cent.
The main index of the Muscat Stock Exchange fell in the middle of last week to 4,618 points, its lowest level since late November, but it managed to rise slightly by the end of the week, concluding its trading at 4,653 points.
Last week's declines included all sectoral indices. The financial sector index recorded the highest declines and closed at 7,512 points, down 115 points. The industrial sector index lost 85 points, the service sector index lost 24 points and the Sharia index declined by 9 points.
Last week witnessed a decline in the prices of 38 securities compared to 12 securities whose prices rose and 17 securities that maintained their previous levels, and the recorded declines affected the total market capitalisation of the Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX), which fell at the end of Thursday’s trading to OMR23.49 billion, recording weekly losses of OMR122.3 million.
Last week, the trading value rose to OMR11,600,000 compared to OMR7,460,000 in the previous week. However, the number of transactions executed declined by 13 per cent, from 1,555 to 1,342 deals.
The increase in the trading value came as a result of the high trading in the shares of Bank Muscat, Omantel and Galfar Engineering and Contracting, which witnessed combined transactions of more than OMR7.5 million, representing 68 per cent of the total trading value.
The share of Al-Sharqiya Investment Holding recorded the highest rise, up by 12.6 per cent, and closed at 80 baisas. Shell Oman Marketing increased by 6.8 per cent and closed at 876 baisas, Al Jazeera Steel Products rose by 5.6 per cent and closed at 243 baisas, and the Building Materials Industry rose by 3.8 per cent and closed at 82 baisas.
The declines included a number of leading stocks included in the sample of the main index and sectoral indices such as Ooredoo, Al Jazeera Services, Al Maha Ceramics, Ominvest, Al Nahda Services, Bank Muscat and most other banks.
