Al Ahlia Insurance shares gain 6 per cent on the first trading day on Muscat bourse

MUSCAT: Shares of Al Ahlia Insurance, which was listed on Thursday on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM), gained 6 per cent to close at 318 baisas on the first day of trading.

Al Ahlia was the first company to list its shares on the Muscat bourse this year and the offer price was 300 baias per share. It was also the first national insurance firm, among five companies, which are floating shares on the Muscat bourse in line with a regulatory requirement.

As many as 14.23 million shares of Al Ahlia Insurance were traded on the bourse, constituting almost 64 per cent of the total traded volume of 22.87 million shares on the Muscat bourse. The MSM declined by 0.47 per cent to close at 4,889.28 points on Thursday.

The company offered 25 million shares (which represent 25 per cent of the company’s paid-up capital) at 300 baisas per share.

The company has allotted a minimum of 15,000 shares and 35 per cent for all additional share applications in the case of retail investors.

As far as institutional investors (or those who applied for 250,100 shares or more) are concerned, applicants received a 24.7 per cent allotment.

The share offer, which was subscribed by around 2.42 times, earned OMR18.2 million from a one-month subscription that closed on August 2.