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United Bank for
Africa (UBA), at the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Thursday, posted
significant improvement in its unaudited financial result for the third
quarter ended September 30, 2010.

The bank, which
recorded a loss after tax of about N18.094 billion in the period in
view, 2009, posted a profit after tax of N6.648 billion this year,
reflecting a 136.74 percent improvement. UBA also recorded a 7.49
percent growth in its total net asset during the quarter, from N1.548
trillion to N1.664 trillion.

However, the bank’s turnover for the period declined by 6.86 percent, from N146.411 billion to N136.366 billion.

High deposits

Emmanuel Nnorom,
UBA’s group executive director, finance and risk, in a statement on
Thursday said, “This is a strong set of results that demonstrates both
the bank’s prudent management and continued commitment to its strategic
objectives,” adding that the bank’s focus on initiatives to reduce
costs resulted in improved efficiencies, with operating expenses
declining by 6.4 percent to N73.5 billion during the period under
review.

Mr. Nnorom said the
bank deposits’ rose by 7.4 percent from N1.25 trillion in December 2009
to N1.34 trillion as at September, and its shareholders’ funds reached
N189.7 billion.

Also, on Thursday,
Wema Bank released its audited third quarter accounts for the period
ended September 30, 2010. The result shows a 4.74 percent decline in
turnover, from N25.286 billion to N24.085 billion. The profit after tax
inched up by 105.50 percent, from a loss of N29.727 billion to a gain
of N1.635 billion.

Decline continues

Meanwhile, the
decline in the value of equities at the nation’s capital market on
Thursday cuts across all sectors of the bourse.

The resilient
nature seen in sectors like the breweries, conglomerates, food and
beverages, since the current downturn started this week, could not be
sustained after yesterday’s trading session.

The All-Share Index
declined by 1.42 percent, to close on Thursday at 24,537.02 basis
points from the previous day’s figures of 24,891.73. Market
capitalisation also followed with N87 billion losses to close at N6.011
trillion from Wednesday’s N6.098 billion.

The number of
gainers at the close of trading session closed higher at 16, compared
with the 14 gainers recorded on Wednesday, while losers also closed
higher at 47, compared with the 38 losers recorded the previous trading
day.

The banking
subsector yesterday led on the most active subsector table with 101.81
million shares valued at N737.29 million, as against the 311.78million
units valued at N1.65 billion recorded on Wednesday.

The volume in the
subsector was driven by shares of Access Bank, First Bank, Guaranty
Trust Bank, and Diamond Bank. The total volume of 39.31 million units
valued at N433.98 million traded in the shares of the four stocks
accounted for 21.42 percent of the entire market volume.

President sympathies

Meanwhile, at the
ongoing annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers in
Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan expressed his sympathies with
investors and stockbrokers that lost money in the stock market since
the downturn began in September 2008.

Aliyu Idi Hong, who
represented the president, said the government is working hard on ways
to ameliorate the losses that befell investors in the market in the
past two years.