MUSCAT : This decline came despite the relative improvement witnessed by most of the Gulf and international stock exchanges during the past week, and despite the positive results announced by the public shareholding companies listed on the stock exchange.

The main index of the Muscat Stock Exchange closed at the end of trading, last week, at 4,452 points, recording its lowest level in 3 months, affected by the decline in the leading shares in most sectors. The legitimate indicator lost 9 points.

Last week, the Muscat Stock Exchange was affected by the decline in the shares of many leading companies. In the banking sector, the declines included the shares of Bank Muscat, Sohar International Bank, National Bank of Oman and Bank Dhofar; in the industrial sector, Raysut Cement share declined by 24.3 percent, recording the highest declines among the leading companies and closed at 146 Baizas.

The declines also included the shares of Al Jazeera Steel Products, Voltamp Energy, Al Anwar Ceramic Tiles, and Oman Cement Company. The declines also included the shares of many investment companies and companies operating in the service sector. The total number of securities whose prices fell last week reached 42, compared to 18 whose prices rose.

These declines led to a decline in the market value of the securities listed on the Muscat Stock Exchange by the end of last week to 23 billion and 126.9 million Omani riyals, recording weekly losses of more than 116 million Omani riyals.

On the other hand, Al Maha Oil Products Marketing was able to record the best rise during the past week, rising by 8.3 percent, and closing at 884 Baizas. Ahli Bank shares rose by 6.2 percent and closed at 136 Baizas; the Oman Arab Bank share rose to 127 Baizas, up by 4.9 percent; the Oman Cables Industry shares rose by 4.5 percent and closed at one riyal and 620 Baizas; and the Oman Oil Marketing Company share rose by 4.4 percent and closed at 940 Baizas.

The trading value rose last week to 12.2 million Omani riyals, compared to 6.4 million Omani riyals in the previous week, and the number of executed deals increased from 1,293 deals to 1,725 deals.

Bank Muscat came at the forefront of the most traded companies in terms of trading value with 4.4 million Omani riyals, representing 36 percent of the total trading value; Ahli Bank came second with 992 thousand Omani riyals, followed by Bank Dhofar with transactions worth 782 thousand Omani riyals, representing 6.3 percent of the total value trading.