KARACHI, Sept 13: Financial figures reaching the stock exchange from Damascus (Syria) where the Attock Group held the meetings of the board of directors for companies in its fold, showed phenomenal earnings growth for majority of companies.

But the shareholders thought that the board had decided to pay lower than expected dividends and many of the company stocks lost value during trading on Monday.

The share in Pakistan Oilfields was down 4.36 per cent; Attock Refinery hit the lower circuit of 5 per cent loss in value and National Refinery stock closed 4 per cent down from its overnight value.

Attock Petroleum was, however, an exception.

Analyst Ali Ahmed Tiwana at Elixir Research noted: "Robust payout for APL shareholders was major excitement as the board declared dividend at Rs30 per share, taking full year dividend to Rs41.50 per share. Payout ratio jumped to 67 per cent in financial year 2011, from 48 per cent the year before.

Topline Securities' analyst Nauman Khan commented on the financial figures of group companies.

Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (POL): The company announced earning per share (eps) at Rs45.72, showing an increase of 45 per cent over EPS of Rs31.44 in the corresponding period last year.

The corporate results were accompanied by final cash payout of Rs25 per share, which took the full year payout to Rs35 per share.

The increase was primarily on account of surge in oil prices by 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to average $93 per barrel in FY11. Moreover, favourable volumetric variance on account of increase in oil and gas production from Tal Block contributed to the earning growth.

In addition, 33 per cent decline in exploration cost to Rs1.1billion; 31 per cent increase in company's other income due to higher payout from associated companies and high interest rate environment, also supported the growth in the bottom line.Attock Refinery Ltd. (ATRL): The company announced eps at Rs25.63 for financial year 2011 as against eps of Rs1.48 the previous year, which represented an incredible 17.3 times higher earnings for the latest year.

In addition, after a break of three years, the company announced a cash payout of Rs2 per share. The growth primarily emanated from improved favourable pricing scenario that pulled company's core refinery operations into profit.

All of that enabled the company to jump into a gross profit of Rs1.6 billion, from gross loss of Rs509 million last year. Support to the bottom line also came from improved other operating income and dividend income, which grew by 59 per cent and 77 per cent to end at Rs1.6 billion and Rs1.1 billion, respectively, in FY11.

National Refinery Ltd. (NRL) announced its FY11 eps Rs82.14, compared to eps Rs41.08 last year, up by a massive 99 per cent and announced a final cash payout of Rs25 per share.

The improved profitability was primarily on account of splendid performance of its lube oil business, complemented by turnaround in fuel refining business.

The company also enjoyed strong cash position, which enabled it to show a massive growth of 95 per cent in "other income", which stood at Rs2.5 billion in FY11 compared to Rs1.3 billion the earlier year.

Attock Petroleum Ltd. (APL): The company announced its FY11 eps at Rs61.58 compared to eps at Rs52 last year, showing an increase of 11 per cent.

The growth in the earnings primarily emerged from improved volumetric sales by 21 per cent YoY and inventory gains arising from soaring oil prices during the year.

Overall company's gross profit rose by 25 per cent to Rs4.7 billion in FY11 from Rs3.7 billion the previous year.

However, gross margin declined to 4.3 per cent in the latest year on account of fixation of oil marketing companies' margin on regulated product by the government.

The bottom line was also ably supported by massive increase of 51 per cent and 120 per cent, respectively, in the company's "other operating income" and dividend income from its associated companies. Income from bank deposit declined by 2 per cent to Rs962.8 million.