…As Zenith International Bank declares N785.19bn gross earnings in 2017***

Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE ) opened for the week on Monday with a drop of 0.26 per cent due to price depreciation of some blue chips.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the All-Share Index dipped 111.35 points or 0.26 per cent to close at 43,056.51 as against 43,167.86 achieved on Friday.

Also, the market capitalization, which opened at N15.507 trillion lost N105 billion or 0.68 per cent to close at N15.402 trillion.

A breakdown of the price movement chart showed that Unilever recorded the highest, shedding N1.40 to close at N60.80 per share.

Nestle trailed with a loss of N1 to close at N1, 380, while NASCON was down by 90k to close at N23 per share.

Cadbury depreciated by 80k to close at N17.60, while United Bank for Africa went down by 60k to close at N22.30 per share.

On the other hand, Total led the gainers’ table for the day, growing by N4.10 kobo to close at N246.10 per share.

Dangote Sugar came second with a gain of 85k to close at N23.35, while Nigerian Breweries gained 50k to close at N130 per share.

UACN added 45k to close at N17.95, while Ecobank Transnational increased by 20k to close at N20 per share.

Also, the volume of shares traded closed lower as investors bought and sold 831.39 million shares valued at N10.57 million on 5, 651 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 1.54 billion shares worth N19.71 billion traded in 4,599 deals on Friday.

FBN Holdings emerged investors delight, accounting for 425.60 million shares valued at N5.29 billion.

Zenith International Bank followed with an exchange of 78.96 million shares worth N2.45 billion, while Japaul Oil and Maritime traded 64.77 million shares valued at N64.01 million.

Regency Alliance Insurance exchanged 41.64 million shares worth N13.80 million, while Unity Kapital traded 24.53 million shares valued at N7.72 million.

Meanwhile, Zenith International Bank has announced gross earnings of N745.19 billion for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2017.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the figure represented a growth of 46.69 per cent over N507.99 billion posted in 2016.

This is contained in the bank’s audited result released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos on Monday.

The company also announced a final dividend of N2.45 per share, amounting to N21.08 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017.

The dividend, to be ratified by the bank’s shareholders at the next Annual General Meeting (AGM) would bring the total dividend for the year to N2.70 against N1.70 paid in 2016.

Profit before tax stood at N203.41 billion in contrast to the N156.75 billion posted in 2016, an increase of 29.8 per cent.

Its income tax expenses dropped to N25.53 billion from N27.09 billion on a net profit of N177.93 billion against N129.65 billion in 2016, representing an increase of N48.281 billion or 37.23 per cent.

The bank’s impairment loss on financial assets rose three-fold to N98.23 billon from N32.35 billion in 2016.

Fee and commission income rose to N90.143 billion from N68.44 billion in 2016.

Other operating income dropped slightly to N22.44 billion from N26.59 billion, depreciation of property and equipment increased to N12.43 billion from N9.68 billion in 2016.

Amortisation of intangible assets stood at N1.63 billion from N1.44 billion, while personnel expenses rose to N64.46 billion from N59.33 billion, just as operating expenses climbed to N148.35 billion from N104.08 billion.