Oman's Raysut Cement on Sunday posted a third-quarter net profit of 6.88 million rials ($16.44 million), up 22.9 percent from the same quarter last year.

The company made a net profit of 24.18 million rials in the first nine months of the year, without offering a breakdown of quarterly data. That compared to 26.13 million rials in the prior-year period, it said in a statement on the Muscat bourse website.

It made a net profit of 5.6 million rials in the third quarter of 2008.

Analysts polled in a Reuters survey in October forecast an average 58 percent rise in third-quarter net profit. -Reuters