Shabiba – Omani
The stocks of the leading companies pressured the indices of the Muscat Stock Exchange during the past week and pushed them to decline, at a time when the public shareholding companies listed on the stock exchange completed announcing their financial results for the first quarter.
During the past week, the stock market did not witness any incentives that prompted investors to accumulate shares, except for Omantel’s announcement on Thursday of its financial results for the first quarter of this year, which indicated an increase in net profits of local operations to about RO 38.7 million, compared to profits of RO 34.7 million in the first quarter. From last year, while the profits of the Omantel Group, which includes the Kuwaiti company Zain, amounted to 93.9 million Omani riyals, up by 50.2 percent from its level in the same period last year, which amounted to 62.5 million Omani riyals, and the net profits of the parent company increased from 18.5 million Omani riyals to 21.2 million riyals Omani shares, and last week, Omantel shares declined by 2 percent and closed at 980 baisas.
During the past week, 50 securities recorded a decline, compared to 10 securities that recorded an increase, and 13 securities maintained their previous levels.
The declines recorded last week included the shares of all banks, with the exception of the Bank of Dhofar share, which rose 12 baisas and closed at 170 baisas, up by 7.6 percent. The shares of most energy, oil and telecommunications companies and many industrial companies, service companies and investment companies declined, which put pressure on the Muscat Stock Exchange indices, which all retreated.
The industrial sector index recorded the highest declines at 201 points, and closed at 6026 points, the financial sector index declined by about 76 points, the service sector index lost about 31 points, the Sharia index declined by about 6 points, and the main index of the Stock Exchange recorded a decline of 57 points and closed at 4666 points. .
--Last week, the Muscat Stock Exchange also recorded a decline in the values and volumes of trading, executed deals and market value. The number of traded securities declined by 13.4 percent from 66.5 million securities to 57.5 million securities, and the trading value decreased from 14.3 million Omani riyals to 13.5 million Omani riyals. The number of executed deals decreased from 4109 deals to 3487 deals, and the market value of the securities listed on the Muscat Stock Exchange fell at the end of last week to RO 23 billion and 732 million, recording weekly losses of RO 83.2 million, and this decline came despite the listing of the 68th issue of Government development bonds with a volume of 67.5 million Omani riyals, which pushed the market value of the bonds and sukuk market up to 4 billion and 765 million Omani riyals.
The new bonds did not witness any trading during the past week, at a time when investors bought Omvest perpetual bonds 2023 through 9 deals, with a value of transactions amounting to 100 thousand Omani riyals. The unsecured secondary speculation of Ominvest III by 10 thousand Omani riyals, and the value of trading in the bond and sukuk market last week increased by 169 percent, to rise to 163 thousand Omani riyals, compared to 60 thousand Omani riyals in the previous week.
In the stock market, investors focused on the shares of Omantel, Abraaj Energy Services and Bank Muscat, which collectively accounted for 63 percent of the total trading value. The interest in the shares of these companies came amid good expectations from investors for the companies’ performance during the coming period. 887 thousand Omani riyals, representing 6.5 percent of the total trading value, and the interest in this stock comes at a time when investors are waiting for the company to announce dividends for its fiscal year ending on March 31, and the stock rose in last week’s trading to 92 baizas before closing at 87 baizas, up by sixty from its previous close.
The share of Oman Chrome recorded the best rise, up by 24 percent, and closed at 3 riyals and 970 baizas. baisa from its level at the end of last December, which amounted to two riyals and 200 baisa, and the market value of the company increased at the end of trading last week to 11.9 million Omani riyals, recording gains of 5.3 million Omani riyals compared to its level at the end of last year, which amounted to 6.6 million Omani riyals, and the company recorded in the first quarter This year, there was a jump in its net profits, which rose to 801 thousand Omani riyals, compared to 204 thousand Omani riyals in the first quarter of last year.
The list of the most rising companies also included the shares of Bank Dhofar, Muscat Gases, Al Batinah Development and Investment and Sembcorp Salalah.
