Dubai-listed firms buck GCC trend

The strength of Dubai's economic _ diversification strategy was once again in the forefront as net profits for listed companies in the emirate increased by 16.0 per cent year on year to $25.4 billion in FY-2024 against $21.9 billion in FY-2023.

- Somshankar Bandyopadhyay [e-mail]

According to a report by Kamco Invest, this was in stark contrast to the wider GCC, where aggregate profits during the last quarter fell five per cent quarter on quarter to reach $57.3 billion.

In Dubai, earnings growth during the year was heavily concentrated on the banking, real estate and utilities sectors. These sectors alone represented 82.8 per cent of the total net profits reported by the exchange during FY-2024 as compared to 88.1 per cent of the total net profits during FY-2023. In context, 10 out of the 13 sectors of the exchange reported year-on-year net profit growth during FY-2024 while the remaining three sectors reported year-on-year declines during the year.