Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) advanced to the highest intraday level in more than a year after first-quarter profit surged 60 percent to 2.5 billion riyals ($667 million), beating analysts’ forecasts.

The shares gained 2.4 percent to 42.1 riyals, the highest intraday level since January 2011, at 11:42 a.m. in Riyadh.

The average estimate of seven analysts was for a profit of 1.92 billion riyals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zahra Hankir in Dubai at zhankir@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net