Middle East and North African transportation companies will likely see limited earnings momentum in the first quarter, owing to higher costs and lower revenue growth, according to Nomura, which cut its price targets on several companies in the sector.

Analyst Scott Darling lowered his price targets on National Shipping Co of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) , Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility , and low-cost airlines Jazeera Airways and Air Arabia

Middle East airlines will likely struggle to show any sequential earnings growth owing to higher jet fuel prices and lower passenger numbers, while the fall in very large crude carrier spot shipping rates will hurt first-quarter earnings at shipper NSCSA, Darling said.

"We are now turning more cautious, with commodity shipping unlikely to show significant profitability improvement in the near term," the analyst said, and downgraded NSCSA to "neutral" from "buy".

He prefers Qatar Gas Transport Co (Nakilat), the world's largest shipper of liquefied natural gas, due to the defensive nature of its business when compared to other shipping companies that are more biased to rate volatility.

Darling, however, expects the very-large crude carrier shipping rates to gradually improve in the medium term. (Reuters)