Saudi brokerage firms’ aggregate profit rises 31% in Q1

The combined earnings of Saudi brokerage firms jumped 31 percent year-on-year (YoY) to SAR 463.3 million in Q1 2018, data from the Capital Market Authority (CMA), the Kingdom’s market regulator, showed.

The higher revenue was backed by a YoY increase of 8 percent in revenue to SAR 1.4 billion in the same period.

The number of brokerage firms operating in the Kingdom rose to 84 in Q1 2018 from 83 a year earlier.

Revenue from asset management jumped 25 percent YoY to SAR 636.3 million in the first quarter. Trading revenue, however, declined 3 percent YoY to SAR 311.9 million.

Combined assets grew by 6 percent YoY to SAR 30.7 billion. Shareholders’ equity remained unchanged at SAR 22 billion during Q1.

Brokerage firms completed SAR 487.6 billion worth of transactions in different equity markets in Q1 2018, a drop of 5 percent YoY.

The firms’ transactions accounted for 97.4 percent of total trading activity on the Saudi market.

Labor force in brokerage firms slipped 1 percent YoY to 4,385 persons in the first quarter, with the Saudization rate rising to 75 percent from 70 percent in Q1 2017.