Qatar Islamic Bank Q2 profit soars 72%

STOCK MOVES: Qatar Islamic's shares have risen 58 percent since the start of the year. (Getty Images)

Qatar Islamic Bank, the third-largest Gulf Islamic lender by market value, posted a second-quarter profit of 397.94 million riyals ($109.3 million), up 72 percent from a year ago and its second-biggest quarterly profit ever.

The bank's first-half profit surged to 853.5 million riyals, compared with 501.6 million riyals in the same period last year, it said in a statement on the bourse website without giving quarterly data. Newswire Reuters calculated the quarterly figure based on earlier financial statements.

"Financing in the real estate sector is probably behind this high growth percentage," said Samer Al Jouani, general manager at Middle East Financial Brokerage Co. "They have financed huge projects in the real estate sector and they are getting the benefits out of it."

"In addition, in the Qatar market there is a huge demand for Islamic finance," he said.

The bank signed a contract in June to fund the construction of a project in Doha that costs $123.7 million.

Its profit came below forecasts of two analysts polled by Reuters last month, who expected Qatar Islamic to make quarterly income of 398.70 million and 433.80 million riyals.

Qatar Islamic recorded a profit of 231.42 million riyals in the second quarter of 2007 and 455.56 million riyals in the first quarter of this year.

The bank's shares are up more than 58 percent this year, outperforming the country's main index which has risen more than 23 percent.

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