Muscat-Saba:
The Muscat Stock Exchange (MSM) last week hit new declines as demand for blue-chip shares fell, while most of the liquidity went to OQ E&P, which listed on the exchange on Oct. 28 and last week accounted for more than 77 percent of total turnover.
Oman News Agency reported on Saturday that the main index of the Muscat Stock Exchange fell last week by 62 points and closed at 4,643 points, down for the third week in a row.
The pressure witnessed by the stocks last week led to a decline in the prices of 50 securities against 15 securities whose prices rose and 19 securities stabilized at their previous levels, which pushed the market capitalization of the exchange to decline by the end of trading Thursday to 27 billion and 436 million Omani riyals, recording a weekly loss of 115.6 million Omani riyals.
On the other hand, the value of trading last week increased to OMR 42.8 million compared to OMR 38.8 million in the previous week, recording a growth of ten percent, benefiting from the rise in trading on OQ E&P shares as retail investors and foreign institutional investors turned to sell.
Last week, the Muscat Stock Exchange witnessed a flock of investors to the units of the Jabal Real Estate Investment Fund, which witnessed trading worth one million and 555 thousand Omani riyals, representing 3.6 percent of the total trading value.