Sunday 24 / November / 2024
Muscat: Total earnings of Omani-listed companies increased by 12.3 per cent during the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 to reach $394.7 million as compared to $351.4 million in Q1-2021, according to a new report.
“Profit growth during the quarter was mainly led by key sectors on the exchange including banks, diversified financials and telecoms which has mainly offset the quarterly losses reported by sectors including utilities and food and beverage,” Kuwait based Kamco Invest, an investment strategy and research firm, said in its GCC Corporate Earnings Report: Q1-2022.
The Omani banking sector reported profit growth of 20.9 per cent in Q1-2022 reaching $243.7 million compared to $201.6 million in Q1-2021.
The telecom sector posted the second-largest Q1-2022 net profits in the MSX exchange reaching $59.6 million as compared to $56.5 million in Q1-2021, the Kamco Invest Report said.
The banking and telecom sectors represented over 76.9 per cent of the total Q1-2022 net profits of listed companies on the exchange.
In the diversified financials sector, total Q1-2022 earnings reached $49.8 million as compared to $41 million during a similar period of the past year.
Total net profits for the energy sector increased 43.9 per cent year-on-year to reach $17.8 million during Q1-2022.
GCC corporate earnings
Earnings reported by GCC-listed companies reached a new record level during Q1-2022 backed by broad-based quarter-on-quarter growth in profits across all sectors barring the consumer durables and apparel sector. The higher profitability reflected a continued and sustained recovery in economic activity across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) during the quarter.
The PMI figures for Saudi Arabia, UAE, Dubai and Qatar consistently remained above the growth mark of 50 during the first three months of the year backed by government efforts as well as robust private sector activity.
In addition, banking credit to the private sector also showed sustained growth in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar based on available data from the respective central banks.
Aggregate net profit for GCC-listed companies reached $65.4 billion during the quarter as compared to $51.5 billion during Q4-2021 resulting in a quarter-on-quarter growth of 27.0 per cent. The year-on-year growth was even stronger at 67.0 per cent when compared to Q1-2021 profits of $39.2 billion.
Energy, banks and diversified financials were the top three sectors by absolute profit growth in Q4-2021 accounting for almost 80 per cent of total quarter-on-quarter growth in profits.
In terms of year-on-year growth, energy, banks and materials were the top three sectors accounting for 82 per cent of the total absolute growth in profits.
Saudi Aramco continued to be the biggest contributor to profit growth during the quarter.
However, excluding Aramco, the growth in aggregate profits remained strong at 35.0 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 51.4 per cent in terms of year-on-year growth.
In terms of the regional trend, profit growth was seen across the seven exchanges during the quarter.
Saudi Arabia reported the biggest year-on-year growth during Q1-2022 with a net income growth of 73.2 per cent followed by Abu Dhabi and Bahrain with year-on-year growths of 63.3 per cent and 62.4 per cent respectively.
