Shares of Unity Bank Plc emerged one of the best performing stocks year-to-date following a 30.99 per cent rise achieved last week.
The performance of the shares, the lender said, in a statement followed some corporate actions it took last year resulting in the writing off of N16 billion goodwill from legacy merger and derisking of toxic assets that strategically cleaned up the bank’s loan books.
Market information from the Nigerian Stock Exchange showed that the Unity Bank stock opened on Monday at N0.71 and closed at N0.93, representing an increase of N0.22. With the stock rising by 75 per cent, a herd of analysts have adjudged it one of the best performing banking stocks year to date.
This, dealers said, was attributable to the bank’s efficiency in curtailing cost, better market focus, revamp of electronic channels and increasing customer centricity which are beginning to restore market confidence in the brand. The bank recently posted ratio of its non-performing loans which stood at zero per cent, describing it as a clear indication of management’s excellent risk assessment.
Unity Bank’s financial statement, made available to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, showed that its profit for the nine-month period to September 2018, stood at N585.84 million.
According to a leading Lagos-based independent investment banking firm, Afrinvest ((West) Africa Limited, trading activity level was mixed in the week as average volume traded expanded 19.1per cent to 256.9million units while average value traded reduced by 36.6per cent to N2.3billion.