Dallas, Texas 10/17/2013 (Financialstrend) – National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG) has a market cap of $2.3 billion. During trading on October 16, the banking stock shed close to 2% of its overall market value. It settled at $5.24 per share at close of business. In spite of the 2% dip, over the past week, the stock has appreciated by 3.7% and by close to 26% in the past 30 days. Brave investors who took the risk of investing into this stock in late July have seen their investments go up by 45%. The recapping of the travails of this stock over the past few months is required to appreciate the smart rally that the banking stock has scripted in such a short time. The turnaround is all the more appreciable when one considers that most of Europe including Greece has still not completely put the devastations of recession fully behind them.
To understand and appreciate the confidence investors are showing in National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG) one needs to take a closer look at its most recent quarter results. This was announced in last week of August. For the first half of the year, the bank had posted profits of Pounds 344 million. This was headline news, since same time last year in the midst of the financial gloom that had enveloped Greece the bank had posted net loss of Pounds 1.9 billion. Management of the bank also highlighted the fact that cash flow generated in 2Q was able to cover for the operational expenses of the bank for the first time in 2 years. Another significant highlight was that the operating costs of the bank fell 6%. Investors would be enthused to know that the belt tightening efforts over the past 12 months has succeeded in lowering expenses by 23% in comparison to 2010 spending.
