Muscat – Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX) was the second-best performing market in the GCC during February 2023 witnessing a monthly growth of 1.1 per cent to close the month at 4,753.28 points following consistent daily volatility since the start of the year.

Affected by the US rate hike fears and oil price decline, all GCC equity markets reported weak trends during February to reach multi-month lows, according to GCC Markets Monthly Report released by Kamco Investment.

The aggregate MSCI GCC Index witnessed the biggest monthly decline in five-months at 5.2 per cent to close the month at 666.75 points. The monthly decline pushed year-to-date performance in the red with a decline of 3.7 per cent.

‘The decline was mainly led by fears of the economic impact of multiple expected rate hikes in the US this year, especially after the release of recent economic data. Weaker crude oil prices also affected markets in the GCC,’ Kamco Investment said.

However, the performance of individual markets in the GCC remained mixed during February. Dubai was the only prominent gainer with a monthly gain of 4.1 per cent. On the decliner’s side, Saudi Arabia topped with a steep monthly decline of 6.4 per cent followed by Qatar and Kuwait with declines of 3.3 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively.

At the MSX, all the three sectoral indices recorded monthly gains during February.

Oman’s services sector index recorded the biggest monthly growth of 2 per cent in February. The growth was primarily driven by the gain in shares of utility companies including Voltamp Energy which witnessed share price growth of 20 per cent and Phoenix Power which witnessed 5.6 per cent gains during the month.

The financial sector index followed witnessing a monthly rise of 1.8 per cent while the industrial sector index registered a monthly gain of 1.6 per cent during February.

Trading activity at the MSX was mixed during February with monthly value traded recording a gain of 7.1 per cent to reach RO42.5mn as compared to RO39.7mn during January. Comparatively, total volume of shares traded at the MSX witnessed a decline of 34 per cent to 162.4mn during February as compared to 246.1mn in January.

Omantel topped the monthly value traded chart for February with trades at RO10.2mn followed by Bank Muscat and Galfar Engineering & Contracting with total value traded at RO9.6mn and RO3.1mn, respectively.

In terms of company performance, shares of SMN Power Holding topped the gainers list with a share price gain of 27.8 per cent followed by Gulf Mushroom Products and Oman Education and Training Investment with 23.7 per cent and 20 per cent monthly share gains, respectively. Shares of SMN Power Holding gained after the company announced cash dividends of 15bz for financial year 2022.

On the decliners side, Sohar Power reported the biggest decline of 15 per cent followed by Al Batinah Power and Oman Qatar Insurance with declines of 13.5 per cent and 11.9 per cent, respectively, according to Kamco Investment data.