Muscat: As many as 88 per cent of the turnover on the Muscat Securities Market in January comprised local purchase, which stood at OMR68.1 million. The purchases of local investment fund and companies accounted for 56.8 per cent of total trading.
The domestic sales amounted to approximately OMR60.3 million. Purchases of local investment fund and companies amounted to 77.8 per cent of the total trading value.
The MSM saw an uneven performance and the main index recorded a decline of 6 points, a marginal loss, while trading closed at 5,776 points, but the financial sector index managed to climb by about 276 points and the industrial sector index gained 183 points. The services sector saw a drop of 35 points, and Sharia market index declined by 11 points.
The market value of companies listed on the MSM went up at the end of January to OMR17.78 billion, a gain of OMR491.6 million. This rise was mainly due tothe increased market value in the parallel market, sukuk and bond market, and also on account of closely-held companies.
The shares of 29 companies rose last month while these declined in case of 31 companies. Shares of 14 companies remained at the same level. The Oman Fisheries Company’s shares recorded the highest growth and closed at 101 baisas, up by 65 per cent; Al Madinah Takaful shares rose to 92 baisas, up by 29 per cent; and the National Finance shares increased to 155 baisas, up by 18 per cent.
The Galfar Engineering and Contracting company was at the forefront when it came to share price loss, closing at 84 baisas, down by 10.6 per cent.
Telecommunication service providers topped the most active companies in terms of value, constituting 22.7 per cent of the total traded value. Ooredoo was on top with traded shares worth OMR8.9 million, accounting for 11.6 per cent of total trading.The Oman Telecommunications Company came second with OMR8.5 million worth of traded shares, or 11 per cent of the total trade in shares.