Saturday 15 / November / 2025
Muscat: The main index of the Muscat Stock Exchange resumed its rise at the end of trading session on Thursday after a week of decline, benefiting from the buying interest of local investment funds and institutions. Individual investors turned to selling to take advantage of the high levels that stocks reached in recent weeks and to move towards diversifying their investment portfolios.
The main index recorded a new record high in the week after it managed to break the 5,700 point barrier amid strong buying of many stocks that pushed the prices of 46 securities to rise, compared to 16 securities that recorded limited declines and 23 securities that remained unchanged at their previous levels.
These positive factors pushed the market capitalisation of the Muscat Stock Exchange to record new gains, rising to OMR31.77 billion by the end of Thursday’s trading, recording weekly gains of OMR444.1 million.
The main index closed at 5,723 points at the end of the week's trading, recording a weekly increase of 179 points, or 3.2 percent. Sectoral indices recorded a collective rise, led by the services sector index, which rose by 5 percent and closed at 2,368 points, up 113 points, benefiting from the rise in shares of Abraj Energy Services, Ooredoo, Renaissance Services, OQ Exploration and Production, OQ Gas Networks, Omantel, Al Anqa Energy, and a number of other companies. The financial sector index recorded a rise of 102 points, the industrial sector index rose 37 points, and the Sharia index climbed to 491 points, up 16 points.
Trading value rose in the week to OMR215.4 million compared to OMR178.8 million in the previous week, registering an increase of 20.4 percent. The number of transactions executed increased by 8.8 percent, from 32,628 to more than 35,500 transactions.
This rise coincided with an increase in purchases by local investment funds and institutions, whose purchases accounted for 72.8 percent of the total trading value, compared to sales of 62.6 percent, while individual Omani investors tended to sell, with their sales constituting 29 percent of the total trading value, compared to purchases of 18.9 percent.
OQ Exploration and Production topped the list of most traded companies in terms of trading value, as investors rushed to buy in anticipation of the dividends the company will pay to shareholders this month, amounting to 7.21 baisa as basic dividends for the third quarter of this year and 2.76 baisa as performance-related dividends. Trading in the company's shares reached OMR43.9 million, representing 20.4 percent of the total trading value. The stock closed at the end of the week's trading at 379 baisa, up 20 baisa during the week. The company's market capitalisation rose to OMR3.32 billion recording weekly gains of OMR160 million.
Bank Muscat ranked second among the most traded companies in terms of trading value, witnessing trades worth OMR37.6 million, representing 17.4 percent of the total trading value. Bank Sohar International came next with trading worth OMR33.9 million, Abraj Energy Services witnessed trades worth OMR23.9 million and Asyad Shipping ranked next with trades worth OMR21.2 million, representing 9.8 percent of the total trading value.
The shares of Abraj Energy Services topped the list of gainers, rising to 330 baisa, up 17 percent. Ooredoo shares rose to 263 baisa, up 11.4 percent, and Oman & Emirates Investment Holding shares rose to 89 baisa, up 11.2 percent.
Al Maha Ceramics shares led the decliners, falling by 4.4 percent to close at 277 baisa. Al Safa Foods shares dropped to 467 baisa, a decline of 2.7 percent, and Muscat Thread Mills shares fell to 195 baisa, a decline of 2.5 percent.
