The financial sector has borne the brunt of the recession and profits seems to be the thing of the past, at least for sometime now and very few banks have managed to get any positives in their annual budget. But one bank seems to have gone against the wind and we are talking about an emerging markets bank the Standard Chartered. They have managed to set aside the gloom surrounding the financial sector and have managed to earn a profit of 19% rise in their annual profits.
This news brought in some more god news as it helped its share go up by more than 11% in early trading, which made them the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 index. Many experts had a sigh of relief and told it’s a very good news for the banking sector, Standard Chartered has often been the underdog in the banking sector because of which it has been often been overlooked, but it has bought about a near perfect end to the banking results season. It has become the best performing bank in the UK after the HSBC set back.
Standard Chartered is listed in London, mainly focuses on the Asian markets which could be the reason for the profits as Asian market has not been as adversely affected as the developed western market. But the Asian situation is also not expected to be very bright in the near future which presents a great challenge to the bank, to maintain its good run. Standard Chartered made more than expected profits before tax of 4.8bn $ which is a significant rise form the 4.04bn $ it had earned last year. As a result it will pay a final dividend of 0.42$ for each share, and 0.62$ annual dividend for each share for 2008.
The acting chairman of Standard Chartered expressed his joy and appreciation following the results. And claimed it to be a great achievement in this exceptional environment. He appreciated the entire team of Standard Chartered and mentioned how the entire group focused on building balance sheet strengths and on maintaining a high level of liquidity. And said that 2009 is going to be a year of great opportunities and challenges.
