DOHA: Qatar Exchange’s (QE) corporate earnings surged to 10.7 percent year-on-year to $2.8bn in Q1 this year due to growth across sectors, barring consumer goods and services. The Qatari bourse mainly benefited from the earnings of banks and industrial companies.
Earnings of banking and financial services sector accounted for the biggest share of QE’s earnings recording 41.8 percent of the total during the period. The sector grew 3.8 percent to $1.2bn during the period as the earnings of Al Ahli Bank (14 percent), Masraf Al Rayan (13.2 percent), Commercial Bank of Qatar (7.3 percent), Qatar National Bank (6.7 percent) and Al Khaliji Commercial Bank (8 percent) grew, GCC Earnings Review released by Global Investment House noted.
Earnings of industrial sector surged 21.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) to $876.1m, accounting for 31.4 percent of the consolidated earnings of the bourse. Industries Qatar reported net income of QR2.54bn in Q1, 2013, compared to QR1.9bn in Q1, 2012 and QR2.36bn in Q4, 2012. Increased ammonia and urea capacity to the company to have paved the way for the sizeable increase in net income on a YoY basis, as during 2012 company raised the ammonia and urea capacity by 11 percent and 15 percent respectively. Gross margins and operating margins of the company rose when compared to the same period last year mainly because of increase in product prices. IQ’s associates however reported a commendable performance as in the previous year they were in a loss of QR31m and in Q1, 2013, the share of results from associates was QR18m, the Global Investment House research note said.
Ooredoo’s revenue increased by 5.2 percent YoY to QR8.4bn in the first quarter. The revenue growth is at the higher end of the 2013 management guidance range. The revenue was driven by revenue growth in Qatar, Iraq, Indonesia and Algeria operations by 5 percent YoY, 6 percent YoY, 9 percent YoY and 16 percent YoY respectively.
Meanwhile, revenue from Kuwait operations declined by 11 percent due to intense competition in the market. Increased data usage is leading to lower international and SMS revenue in Kuwait. The revenue in Tunisia also saw a decline of 5 percent YoY due to the difficult economic conditions in the country.
The report noted corporate earnings in the GCC region rose 1 percent YoY to $15bn in the first quarter. The overall earnings were led by Bahrain (63 percent), followed by Oman (22.1 percent), Dubai (21.7 percent), Qatar and Abu Dhabi (1.9 percent). Positive performance in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is mainly ascribed to higher earnings of banks, which offset the decline in the earnings of real estate companies. Oman saw an all round buoyant activity during the quarter led by the industrial and banking companies.
The Peninsula
