Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) expects earnings of Bahrain companies to grow by 10 per cent this year, it said in a report based on a study of over 650 companies across GCC.

Markaz said it sees strong earnings growth of 12 per cent for the region as a whole, adding that it believes local developments in the GCC region play a vital role in stock markets in the region, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

Improving economic prospects in the developed economy such as the US and the euro zone are expected to increase volume of exports across the region, the report said.

Markaz expects economic activities in anticipation of the Dubai Expo 2020 and Fifa World cup 2022 to be positive for the real estate and construction-related sectors.

The report revealed that total earnings for GCC corporates during last year amounted to $59.2 billion and total earnings during the second half were $29.3 billion.

Second half earnings were driven by strong performance from financial services, real estate, construction, telecommunications and conglomerates.

Aggregate net profits from financial services came in at $1.3 billion, a growth of 54 per cent over the previous year.

Real estate sector's earnings amounted to $3.7 billion growing at 47 per cent for last year. Construction related companies and conglomerates clocked earnings growth of 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

GCC region witnessed 10 per cent overall positive growth in full year earnings during last year, led by financial services and real estate sector.

The financial services and real estate sector witnessed an overall earnings growth of 54 per cent and 47 per cent respectively owing to improving prospects in key markets such as the UAE and Qatar.

Some of the benefits of the real estate sector also spilled onto construction related companies whose earnings grew at a rate of 16 per cent. GCC banks displayed solid growth last year with overall earnings growing by 9 per cent. Bahrain and Kuwait topped the list of countries in terms of earnings growth at 24 per cent each, supported by good performance in banking, financial service and real estate sectors. – TradeArabia News Service