HSBC has just had one of its best years in decades. Bloomberg says the share is up 42 per cent on the year, outperforming the index by more than 10 per cent.
In profits the bank reported its best results ever in the year at $24.33 billion in 1994, up 17 per cent at the attributable level.
Pre-tax profit, the number British analysts follow, lifted 84 per cent to GBP3.16 billion (about HK$37.69 billion).
At the 1995 interim stage operating profit advanced 23 per cent and net profit was up 28 per cent. Baring Securities says non-operating income contributed only 8 per cent to pre-tax profit against 14 per cent in the year previous.
With the group's operations around the globe appearing to be firing on all cylinders and bad debt provisioning all cleared up, the bank has risen in the eye of the investment community.
Since 1990 the share has been a stellar performer, rising, according to Bloomberg, 503 per cent, against 224 per cent on the Hang Seng Index and 71 per cent on the FTSE-100. HSBC's results over the period to the end of November represented an annualised return of more than 50 per cent since 1990.
