High oil prices drive record $77.3bn quarterly profit for GCC-listed firms

RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council’s listed companies hit a record aggregate profit of $77.3 billion in the second quarter of 2022, as the oil-rich region benefited from elevated oil prices that traded at around $100 a barrel.

This is up from $65.4 billion on a sequential basis, while year-on-year growth was even stronger at 63 percent from $47.6 billion in the same period of 2021, a Kamco Invest report shows.

In Saudi Arabia, the profits of listed firms rose 70.4 percent on the year to $59.5 billion in the second quarter, once again accounting for the largest share of GCC-wide profits.

The report explained that the earnings boom was backed by a growth in profit across most sectors, led by energy, banks, and materials which compensated for the adverse performance of diversified financial firms.

“The region showed strong consumer and business sentiments during the quarter despite a slowdown at the global level mainly due to higher inflation and the efforts by central banks to tame rising prices,” it noted.