DOHA: The combined net profit of Qatar’s publicly traded firms was over QR24.29bn ($8.04bn) in the first half (January-June) of this year, up 12.23 percent over the same period of 2014.
The net earnings are of 42 of 43 companies listed on Qatar Exchange (QE), the Qatari bourse, as Vodafone Qatar’s financial year is from April 1 to March 31.
Of the seven sectors the listed entities are grouped into, real estate counters showed a gain of 229.47 percent. Net earnings of the real estate companies were over QR4.92bn, up from QR1.5bn in the first half of last year.
Ezdan, Barwa, UDC and Mazaya comprise this sector, with Barwa and Ezdan registering higher gains.
The net profit of the banking and financial services sector grew 8.23 percent to over QR10.36bn, from QR9.57bn in the corresponding period of 2014.
The sector’s performance was led by the country’s largest lender QNB whose net earnings were more than half (QR5.58bn) of the sector’s total for H1 of 2015.
The services and consumer goods sector’s net profit fell albeit to QR925.28m from QR930.14m in H1 of 2014.
The industrial sector suffered a massive beating as its net earnings dropped 16 percent compared to H1 of last year. Major losers in the sector were bellwether Industries Qatar (IQ), Messaieed Petrochem and Gulf International.
The insurance sector with five listed entities reported a drop of 1.69 percent in net earnings, to QR825m from 839.28m in the first half of 2014.
Telecom counters, with Ooredoo being the only of the two entities to have reported H1 2015 financials, registered a drop of 46.17 percent in net profit. Transport counters showed 19.21 percent gains
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