OCBC shares continue rally, and close at new record of S$18.19 after encouraging Q3 results

Shares of OCBCclosed at a new all-time high on Monday (Nov 10), continuing a rally from last week.

The counter rose 2.1 per cent to S$18.15 at 4.10 pm, beating its previous peak of S$17.94 on Nov 7. But its rally was not done yet: it climbed further to end the day at S$18.19, up by 2.3 per cent, with around 12.3 million shares transacted.

The lender on Nov 7 announced a net profit of S$1.98 billion for its third quarter, nearly flat year on year but beating the S$1.79 billion consensus forecast in a Bloomberg survey of five analysts.

Its shares closed 3.4 per cent higher at S$17.48 that day.

OCBC’s net interest income for Q3 declined 9 per cent year on year to S$2.23 billion.

Total income slipped less than 0.2 per cent, to nearly S$3.8 billion, due to robust non-interest income.

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Meanwhile, UOB posted a slide of 11.4 per cent in total income to S$3.4 billion with a S$885 million jump in allowances, which slashed its net earnings to S$443 million.

Monday was also banking veteran Melvyn Low’s first day as OCBC’s new group chief strategy and transformation officer.

He will be in charge of driving the group’s long-term strategic road map, with a “focus on future-proofing the group’s businesses and identifying new growth engines”.

He will continue to oversee the global transaction banking division, which he has led since 2018. He is also co-chair of the steering committee for the governance of PayNow cross-border linkages and sits on the boards of Nets and the Singapore Trade Data Exchange.