Muscat, Oman – The value of trading on the Muscat Stock Exchange increased last week to 9.6 million Omani riyals ($25m), compared to 9.1 million riyals ($23.65m) in the previous week, recording a growth of 5.5 percent.
This rise came at a time when investors tended to diversify their portfolios, taking advantage of the declines in stock prices during the past two weeks, QNA reported.
Trading data issued by the Muscat Stock Exchange showed a decline in the prices of 40 securities last week, compared to 15 securities whose prices increased, and 19 securities that maintained their previous levels.
The recorded declines led to a drop in the market value of the Muscat Stock Exchange to 23 billion and 213 million Omani riyals, recording weekly losses of more than 87 million Omani riyals.
The declines recorded by the leading companies also pushed the main index of the Muscat Stock Exchange and sectoral indices to the downside, the report said.
The industry sector index recorded the highest declines to lose 136 points, while the financial sector index lost 64 points.
The services sector index lost 34 points, the Sharia index 6 points, and the main index of the stock exchange closed at 4478 point down 34 points.