RIYADH: A boom year for Saudi oil giant Aramco pushed the collective profits of GCC-listed firms to a record high of $197 billion in 2021, according to a report by Kamco Invest. The aggregate profits of companies listed in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman stood at $93.1 billion in 2020. Buoyed by the 2021 economic recovery, oil giant Aramco, along with the banking, materials, and utility segments, accounted for 85 percent of the total amount. The Saudi oil major more than doubled its profits to $110 billion during the year, mainly driven by a rally in crude prices. Aggregate net profits for companies listed in Saudi Arabia witnessed a y-o-y increase of more than 120 percent in FY-2021 to reach $143 billion against $64.8 billion in FY-2020, according to Kamco Invest. The report revealed that 17 out of 21 sectors performed better in terms of profitability, with the utilities and transportation sectors seeing a massive jump in net profits after pandemic losses. Kamco noted that the profitability of banks in the region soared to the highest level since 2018, up 52.9 percent to $35.4 billion. Among GCC bourses, Oman was the only market that recorded a drop in aggregate profits of listed companies, down 3.7 percent.