MANAMA: Stock market listed companies in Bahrain presented bad performances last year, mainly attributed to investment and insurance companies.

These two sectors were affected due to the difficult market conditions that prevailed globally during the second half of the year.

Last year witnessed a profit decline of 91.75 per cent as compared to the previous year and collective net profit of the listed companies stood at BD72.76 million ($193.25m).

Excluding Arab Banking Corporation and Investcorp Bank losses, total net profit of Bahraini listed companies declined by 25.55pc to BD597.21m compared to BD802.19m the previous year.

In terms of sectoral growth in earnings, three sectors had an increase while the other three recorded losses in their net profit.

The hotels and tourism sector registered the highest growth of 23.56pc to reach BD20.77m, whereas the investment sector witnessed the worst performance and recorded a loss of BD286.70m last year compared to a gain of BD471.06m in 2007.