The profits of companies listed on Muscat Securities Market (MSM) grew by about 25 per cent during the first half of this year as compared to last year. Thirty-nine of the companies, which announced their unaudited results for mid-2012, generated a total of profits worth RO 301.5 million, compared to RO 240.9 million during the corresponding period last year.

The results showed that more than 70 per cent of the companies which announced their results achieved profit. What investors look for in the market is the profitability of companies and prospects for investment, said Hassan bin Ahmed al Lawati, Chief Executive Officer of Al Aafaq money market company. Al Lawati described the results of the 39 companies listed on MSM as good and encouraging.

Al Lawati pointed out that MSM’s performance over the past short period was slightly affected by temporal factors, the most important of which is a succession of holidays and the issuance of preferential rights which absorbed liquidity and confused investors. But this recent announcement of good profits of MSM-listed companies will bring back the market’s performance to normalcy, said Al Lawati.

Following is an account of (sector-wise) unaudited results of profits achieved by MSM-listed companies during the first half of 2012: Among financial sector companies that achieved profits was Bank Dhofar, whose profits soared by 526 per cent, followed by Bank Sohar which posted an 49 per cent profits and bank muscat which saw an increase of 19.6 per cent in profits.

In the industrial sector, the profits of Oman Cables Company increased by 53 per cent, the profits of Al Jazeera Steel Products grew by 33 per cent and Oman Cement Company 22 per cent. In the services sector, Al Jazeera Services’ profits soared by 450 per cent, followed by Al Maha (25 per cent), Shell Oman Marketing (13.8 per cent) and Omantel (12.7 per cent), while the Omani Qatari Company (Nawras)’s profits dropped by 11 per cent.