The National Bank of Pakistan reported Rs 4 billion in profits during the first quarter of calendar year 2016, according to an official notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday.
One of Pakistan’s largest banks, the NBP boosted its after-tax profit to Rs 4.02 billion or Rs 1.89 per share during three-month period ended March 31, 2016, up 3 per cent compared to Rs 3.89 billion or Rs 1.89 per share it earned during the same quarter of the previous year.
However, the result is below market expectations, according to the AKD Securities. The share price of the bank increased by 1.19 per cent to end at Rs 55.03 compared to last day’s closing price of Rs 54.38. As many as 2.8 million shares of the bank were traded by the end of the day.
The NBP reported a net mark up income of Rs12.1 billion during the first quarter of the year, up 7 per cent as compared to 11.4 billion net mark up of the same period in 2015. However, the non-markup income of the bank decreased to Rs 6.6 billion, down 23 per cent from Rs 8.5 billion it earned during the comparable period of last year.
“Increase in net interest income is primarily due to banking spread expansion and provisions going down as compared to the same period last year,” said Zoya Ahmed, an analyst at the AKD Securities. “The reason for drop in non-interest income is due to lower capital gains and expenses of Rs 1.46 billion in the quarter under review against Rs 3.49 billion in the same period last year,” she explained.
