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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's biggest oil company, said Thursday its first-quarter earnings rose 5.7 percent, despite falling oil prices and declining profit at its production and refining arms.
Net income rose to $7.28 billion from $6.89 billion in the year-ago period, while sales fell 3.3 percent to $73.5 billion.
The main reason Shell's results improved was due to the good performance of the stock market. The company's corporate financing arm reported earnings of $801 million, up from $227 million last year, due mostly to the "realization of gains on the sale of the equity portfolio held by the group insurance companies."
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