NBP profit surges 4.5pc

The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) earned a net profit of Rs4.202 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2017, which is 4.5 percent higher than the profit of Rs4.02 billion it recorded during the same quarter of the last year.

The EPS clocked in at Rs1.94 as compared to Rs1.89 announced during the same period of the last year. The bank did not announce any payouts along with the corporate announcements.

“Higher-than-expected earnings were attributable to higher capital gains and lower provision expense,” Ibad-ur-Rehman in a report issued by Elixir Securities, said.

Net interest income for the period surged 1.81 percent to Rs12.405 billion as against Rs12.184 billion last year. “Net Interest Income of the bank surged due to higher-than-estimated interest expense,” Ibad-ur-Rehman said.

Total non-interest income surged 11.7 percent to Rs20.072 billion as compared to Rs17.918 billion last year.

Chandar Kumar in a report issued by Sherman Securities said the growth in non-interest income was due to higher capital gains booked during the quarter.

“We believe the bank might have realised some of the gains from equity portfolio, as the bank was sitting up with huge unrealised capital gains of Rs37 billion as of December 2016.”

Due to large recoveries and significant reduction in the overall non-performing loans, provisioning expenses of the bank witnessed a significant decline, as it recorded provisioning expenses of Rs73 million in the quarter under review as against Rs1 billion in the corresponding quarter of the last year.