Muscat – The Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX), which had emerged as the GCC’s second best performing stock market in February and March this year, took a U-turn and became the worst performing market in the region in April.

Oman’s MSX30 index recorded a monthly decline of 3.0 per cent in April 2023 to close the month at 4,718.08 points.

By contrast, the overall GCC markets closed April at the highest level since the last week of January 2023, mainly led by consistent gains during the last week of the month, according to Kamco Investment’s GCC Markets Monthly Report which was released on Monday.

Saudi Arabia was the best performing market during April with a gain of 6.8 per cent followed by the UAE markets with monthly gains of 4.1 per cent and 3.8 per cent for Dubai and Abu Dhabi, respectively.

‘On the other hand, Oman’s MSX30 index topped the decliner’s list for the month with a drop of 3.0 per cent followed by a marginal decline of 0.3 per cent for the Qatari market during April 2023,’ the report noted.

In terms of sector performance, the Muscat Stock Exchange’s two out of the three sector indices recorded monthly gains during April. Industrial sector index recorded the biggest monthly growth of 3.7 per cent in April, while services sector index registered a gain of 2.4 per cent for the month.

The growth in industrial sector index was primarily driven by a small number of top performing companies including National Aluminum Products which witnessed share price growth of 227.3 per cent during April and Raysut Cement which recorded 23 per cent gains.

On the other hand, the MSX’s financial sector index recorded a monthly decline of 2.3 per cent in April. Stand out share price decline of companies like Ominvest (18.2 per cent drop) and Al Madina Investment Holding (16.7 per cent decline) in the financial sector index were the primary driver of the sector’s monthly decline during April.

Trading activity increases

Trading activity on the Muscat Stock Exchange witnessed gains for the second consecutive month with monthly value traded recording a gain of 24.5 per cent to reach RO114.5mn during April 2023 as compared to RO91.9mn during March 2023.

Similarly, total volume of shares traded on the exchange witnessed an increase of 18.1 per cent to reach 375.2mn traded shares during April 2023 as compared to 317.8mn traded shares in March 2023.

Bank Muscat topped the monthly value traded chart for the second month running with trades worth RO4.6mn followed by Omantel and National Bank of Oman with total value traded at RO3.8mn and RO2.5mn, respectively.

In terms of company performance, National Aluminum Products topped the gainers list with a share price gain of 227.3 per cent followed by Al Hassan Engineering and Oman Chromite with 38.5 per cent and 35.8 per cent monthly share gains, respectively.

On the decliner’s side, Construction Materials Industries topped the monthly losers list with a share price drop of 21.6 per cent followed by Ominvest and Al Madina Investment Holding.