Total net profits for listed companies in Muscat Stock Exchange increased by 14% year-on year (y-o-y) to $457.6 million in Q3 2022 as compared with $401.4 million in Q3 2021, according to Kamco Invest. The biggest sector in the exchange by market cap, the banking sector, improved 21.4% to reach $279.8 million up from $230.6 million in Q3 2021. The diversified financials sector followed with the second largest total net profits among the sectors with $92.4 million during Q3 2022 up from $17.2 million in Q3 2021.
Bank Muscat, the Sultanate of Oman’s largest bank by assets, posted the biggest profit of 7.7% growth y-o-y to reach $127.4 million as compared to $118.2 million in Q3 2021. The earnings growth is due to revenue increase from both non-interest income and net interest income from the conventional banking business. Bank Muscat’s Q3 2022 earnings represented 45.5% of the total profits in the banking sector. National Bank of Oman recorded Q3 2022 net profits of $34.9 million as compared to $20.4 million in Q3 2021. The bank attributed its quarterly performance to a combination of growth in net interest income, fee income and a fall in operating expenses. All the eight banks which announced Q3 2022 net profits registered y-o-y growth in earnings except for Bank Dhofar which witnessed 14.1% profits slide to $25.1 million.
In the diversified financials sector, Ominvest posted the biggest profits during Q3 2022 with net profits of $86.8 million as compared to $14.6 million during Q3 2021. The investment company attributed the jump in its quarterly net profits to an increase in revenue on the back of its acquisition of RSA ME by National Life and General Insurance Company.
Despite witnessing subdued growth of 3.9% y-o-y during Q3 2022, the telecom sector’s aggregate profits were the third largest among the sectors reaching $51.2 million as compared to $49.2 million during the corresponding period of 2021. Omantel’s Q3 net profits dipped 7.9% y-o-y to reach $39.5 million down from $42.9 million. The dip in profits was attributed to the growth of Omantel’s total service expenses as well as cost of material consumed, and goods sold. Comparatively, Q3-2022 net earnings for Ooredoo Oman jumped 83.4% y-o-y to $11.7 million.
The energy sector’s Q3 net profit reached $21.3 million as compared to $16.3 million in Q3 2021 witnessing a 30.2% y-o-y growth. Al Maha Petroleum Products registered the largest absolute profit rise among the five companies in the sector with Q3 2022 net profits of $6.2 million up from $2.7 million in Q3-2021. The company attributed its robust performance to the expansion of its customer reach underpinned by a strategic repositioning to meet changing customer preferences after the Covid-19 period. On the other hand, Renaissance Services Co recorded the biggest Q3 2022 net profit among the companies in the sector with $6.7 million as against $6.5 million in Q3 2021. Of the five companies in the sector, National Gas was the only loss-making company registering a loss of $0.61 million in Q3 2022 as compared with a loss of $0.9 million in Q3 2021.
