Financial sector best performer on MSM

Muscat: The financial sector has been the best performing sector on Muscat Securities Market (MSM) in the first half of 2016 as it closed at 7,266 points — an increase by 789 points compared to the closing at the end of 2015.
Sector wise, the financial sector index grew by 12.1 per cent compared to 7.9 per cent by the industrial sector index, 6.8 per cent by MSM "30" index, 5.8 per cent by service sector index and 3.6 per cent by the Sharia index.
The good performance is supported by the improved results of MSM listed financial companies especially banks and investment companies, which performed well and managed to both keep pace with investor's aspirations and achieve good growth in the financial indicators despite oil prices drop.
During the first half of 2016, all MSM listed banks performed well. The initial data point out that Bank Muscat net profit increased to OMR90.4 million compared to OMR 89.8 million during the corresponding period last year.
The net profits of National Bank of Oman (NBO) increased to OMR29.4 million compared to OMR28.1 million during the reporting period. The net profits of Bank Dhofar increased to OMR22.6 million compared to OMR26.1 million during the reporting period as well.
The initial data also shows that the net profits of HSBC Oman increased by 51.9 per cent, that is, from OMR5.2 million to OMR7.9 million.
On the other hand, Bank Nizwa managed to reduce its losses to OMR727,000 compared to OMR3.2 million loss at the first half of 2015. Al Izz Islamic Bank also managed to reduce its loss from OMR3 million to about OMR 2.1 million.
The financial sector sample includes six banks namely Bank Muscat, Bank Dhofar, Ahlibank, Bank Sohar, Bank Nizwa and HSBC Oman Bank. It also includes six investment companies namely Al Anwar Holding, Gulf Investment Services, Oman Emirates Investment Holding, Ominvest, Sharqiyah Investment Holding, in addition to a single insurance company ‘Oman United Insurance’.
The market value of the financial sector sample is about OMR3.1 billion or 34 per cent of MSM listed joint stock companies' market value, which is about OMR8.9 billion. It is also about 18 per cent of the gross market value of the listed stocks, which is about OMR17.1 billion.
During the first half of 2016, the OMR293.4 million worth stock or 52.3 per cent of the total value of trading, which is OMR560.4 million changed hands. By the end of June 2016, the foreign investors of which 15.6 per cent are from the GCC, owned 27.9 per cent of the capitals of the financial sector companies listed at MSM.