Fifty-two Saudi firms listed in the local market revealed their fiscal results for the first half of 2018, revealing a 13.6 percent growth in profits, which will increase the power of the local financial market.

The companies achieved SAR38.2 billion (USD 10.1 billion) profits during the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2017, while the majority of these profits come via the banking sector and petrochemical industries.

This comes at a time when the rest of the companies are anticipated to reveal their fiscal results within the coming days. SABIC, one of the world’s biggest petrochemicals company, is expected to announce its fiscal results of the second quarter on Sunday.

These updates come at a time when S&P DJI announced that it was upgrading the Saudi financial market to an emerging market.

Saudi stocks that are currently part of the S&P Saudi Arabia BMI will initially be eligible for phased inclusion in the S&P Global BMI, S&P Global BMI Shariah, S&P/IFCI Composite, Dow Jones Global Index and Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index. Eligibility for inclusion in other S&P DJI index families will begin in September 2019.

The Kingdom had recently introduced a number of key steps aimed at developing the financial market and increasing its chances of being listed among the global market indices. It also recently decided to ease restrictions for foreign capitals in addition to applying the international accountability standards.