Jabal Omar Development, the largest listed real estate developer in Saudi Arabia by market capitalisation, has reported its first quarterly profit in five years.

Since 2009, Jabal Omar, which works on projects in Makkah, has only reported quarterly and yearly losses.

The Saudi developer said on Thursday it had made a profit of SR431.3 million ($115 million) in the fourth quarter of the Hijri calendar year which ended last month, compared with a loss of SR17.6 million ($4.68 million) a year earlier.

The profit swing also made the Saudi developer's full year profitable, it stated.

The company's shares too rose in an otherwise weak stock market on Thursday. The stock added 0.7 per cent while Saudi Arabia's main stock index edged down 0.4 per cent.-Reuters