Oman's stock market back in the green in April 2020

Muscat: The Omani stock market was back in the green during April-2020 recovering partially from the steep decline witnessed during March-2020, according to a new report.

The 2.6 per cent gain for the MSM30 Index during April-2020 was one of the smallest for the month in the GCC, the Kuwait-based Kamco Invest said in its research report covering 'GCC Markets Monthly Report – April 2020'.

The surge came on the back gains in all the three sectoral indices in the market with Industrial index seeing gains of 2.6 per cent followed by Financial index at 2.3 per cent and the Services index with a monthly gain of 0.6 per cent.

The gains for the MSM Total Return index was almost in line with the MSM30 Index with a gain of 2.7 per cent during April-2020. Moreover, despite the marginal gains during April-2020 as compared to the rest of the GCC markets, the MSM30 index was the best performing index in the GCC in terms of year-to-date YTD-2020 performance with the smallest decline of 11.1 per cent since the start of the year.

The list was topped by Al Sharqia Investment Holding with a gain of 16.9 per cent that came after the company reported higher total income and net income for 2020 first quarter.

For the overall MSM, including parallel market stocks and under monitoring stocks, the gainers chart was topped by Gulf International Chemicals with a gain of 31.8 per cent led by a 22 per cent increase in total revenue reported by the company for 2020 first quarter, Kamco Invest said in its report.

Galfar Engineering and Const. was next on the list with a gain of 24.44 per cent followed by Al Madina Takaful and Oman National Engine. Invt. with gains of 21.7 per cent and 20.7 per cent, respectively. Shares of Galfar Engineering got a boost after the company won a contract valued at OMR9.5 million for the Fahud Runway Rehabilitation Project.

On the decliners side, United Power topped with its stocks falling 41 per cent followed by Al Hassan Engineering and The Financial Corp. with declines of 23.8 per cent and 19.4 per cent, respectively, during April-2020.

Shares of The Financial Corporation declined after the company reported losses of OMR1 million during 2020 first quarter as compared to a profit of OMR0.32 million during 2019 first quarter.

The monthly market breadth slightly favoured the gainers that included 34 stocks as compared to decliners that included 27 stocks.

Meanwhile, trading activity on the exchange witnessed a steep decline during April-2020. Aggregate monthly volume traded during April-2020 declined by 43 per cent to reach 169.7 million shares as compared to 298.5 million shares during the previous month.

Aman Real Estate Investment topped the monthly volume traded chart with 20 million traded shares during the month followed by Al Anwar Ceramic Tiles and Bank Muscat with 18.1 million shares and 16 million shares, respectively.

The decline in monthly value traded was even steeper at 65 per cent to reach OMR25.0 million in April-2020 as compared to OMR 71.6 million during March-2020. Bank Muscat topped the monthly value traded chart with OMR 5.0 million worth of shares changing hands during the month followed by Al Anwar Ceramic Tiles and Omantel with OMR 2.3 million and 2.2 million worth of shares traded during the month.

In terms of the type of investor, the share of Omanis in the total value of buy trades declined from 90 per cent during March-2020 to 74.1 per cent in April-2020, whereas their share of sell trades declined from 76 per cent in March-2020 to 57.73 per cent during April-2020, Kamco Invest said in its report.