Combined profits of firms listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange rose sharply in 2010 after two years of modest gains due to the global financial crisis, an economic report said on Sunday.
The 174 firms that have announced results so far posted a total net profit of 1.72 billion dinars (6.2 billion dollars) last year, up 211 percent from 553.9 million (two billion dollars) in 2009, Al-Shall Economic Consultants said.
Last year's profits include 740.8 million dinars (2.67 billion dollars) of extraordinary gains made by the Zain telecom company from the sale of its African operations, Al-Shall said.
But even if the extraordinary gains are excluded, profits in 2010 would still have marked an increase of 77.6 percent compared to 2009, Al-Shall said.
In 2008, Kuwait-listed firms posted overall profits of 1.45 billion dollars, crashing from 15.8 billion dollars in the previous year due to the strong impact of the global financial crisis.
The investment sector, which was the hardest hit by the crisis, continued to be in the red for the third year in a row, posting a total loss of 800 million dollars in 2010 compared to 1.2 billion dollars the previous year.
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