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Third-quarter earnings season was in full swing on Thursday, with Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, showing profits doubled to nearly $7 billion in the third quarter because of higher oil prices and gains from the sale of assets.

Shell said on Thursday that net profit was $6.98 billion, up from $3.46 billion in the third quarter of 2010. Revenues rose 36 percent to $123 billion.

The company booked $1.8 billion in profits from the sale of assets, notably the sale of a refinery in Britain.

This time last year it took a $1.4 billion impairment charge on assets after an accounting review of its operations in Canadian heavy oil sands and its refining arm.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen saw its net profit rise sharply in the third quarter to 7.14 billion euros ($10 billion), boosted by a large accounting addition from revaluing options related to its stalled takeover of Porsche.

The company made 2.20 billion euros in the same period a year ago.

With operating earnings of 9 billion euros in the first nine months, the company said it had already exceeded 2010 full-year earnings with three months still to go in the year.

The company reaffirmed its earnings prediction for significantly higher sales and operating profit this year, and the company’s shares rose 5.9 percent in morning trading.

Hyundai Motor

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor said on Thursday that its third-quarter net profit rose 20.7 percent from a year earlier, helped by strong sales abroad.

Consolidated net profit reached 1.92 trillion won ($1.72 billion) in July to September. The company, however, said its fourth-quarter profitability would be undermined by tough competition from US and Japanese rivals at home and abroad.

Daimler

Daimler said net profit fell 16 percent in the third quarter to 1.36 billion euros ($1.9 billion) compared to a year ago as higher costs at its Mercedes-Benz division held earnings back.

The company said on Thursday that it also took a 110 billion euro charge for the fallen value of its investment in Renault.

That kept it from beating analyst estimates of a 1.40 billion euro net profit.

Revenue rose 9 percent to 26.4 billion euros. Mercedes hit a record for unit sales in the quarter with 315,400 worldwide.

Earnings from luxury division Mercedes-Benz fell 15 percent due to upcoming model changeovers, higher raw-material costs and increases in research and development expenses, the company said.

Altria Group

Marlboro maker Altria Group said its profit rose nearly 4 percent as higher prices and gains from other tobacco products helped to offset declining cigarette sales.

The US-based company also announced a new $1 billion share buyback and another $400 million in cost reductions.

Procter and Gamble

Procter & Gamble’s net income fell 2 percent in the fiscal first quarter, a sign that the consumer-goods giant is battling higher costs.

P&G, maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers, said net income fell to $3.02 billion from $3.08 billion. The decline came despite a revenue increase of 9 percent.

P&G said it expected revenue to increase 3 percent to 6 percent for the current fiscal year, which runs through June. Some of that gain will be thanks to higher prices.

Statoil ASA

Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA said its net profit fell by 25 percent in the third quarter, mainly due to higher production costs. The company’s quarterly earnings fell to 13.8 billion kroner ($2.5 billion) from 10.4 billion kroner in the same period a year ago. Statoil said the result was weighed down by a net impairment loss of 4.8 billion kroner related to its refinery business.

TSMC

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing said its earnings dropped by more than a third in the latest quarter amid uncertainties about the global economic market.

The world’s largest contract chip maker said on Thursday that its third-quarter net profit of 30.4 billion New Taiwan dollars ($1 billion) was down 35 percent from last year and down 15.5 percent from second quarter this year.

BASF

Germany’s BASF says the suspension of oil production in Libya contributed to a drop in third-quarter earnings, although the company reported a healthy overall rise in revenue.

The chemical company said on Thursday that it earned 1.19 billion euros ($1.67 billion) in the July to September period, down 4.3 percent from last year’s 1.25 billion euros.

BASF’s Wintershall subsidiary had to suspend oil production in Libya in February due to fighting there. Production resumed in mid-October and is now being ramped up.

Bayer

Bayer said its earnings more than doubled in the third quarter compared with a year-earlier figure that was weighed down by one-time charges.

The pharmaceutical and chemical company said on Thursday that its net profit for the July to September period was 642 million euros ($898 million) — a 125 percent increase over the previous year’s 285 million euros.

Lufthansa

German airline Lufthansa said on Thursday that its bottom-line net profit declined by 21.3 percent to 494 million euros ($691 million) in the third quarter.

Revenues in the period from July to September rose by 6.7 percent to 8.075 billion euros, it said in a statement.

Olympus

Shares in Japan’s Olympus closed up 23 percent in Tokyo trade on Thursday, a day after its under-pressure chairman and president resigned over a fee payments scandal.

The company had earlier held a press conference defending payments made in a series of deals at the center of the row, which had wiped out around half of its share value and sparked two leadership changes in less than two weeks.

Olympus shares closed up 23.29 percent at 1,355 yen.

AP, AFP, Reuters