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National Australia Bank (NAB) shares surged to a record high after the lender posted a strong 16% rise in first-quarter cash earnings, driven by solid growth in business lending and home loans. Investors pushed NAB’s stock up as much as 5.8% to an all-time peak of A$47.96, marking its best trading session since April last year.
Australia’s largest business lender reported cash earnings of A$2.02 billion ($1.43 billion) for the quarter ended December 31, up from A$1.74 billion a year earlier. The robust performance highlights NAB’s resilience amid intensifying competition among Australia’s “Big Four” banks, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac Banking Corp, and ANZ Group.
NAB’s core business banking division, its largest segment, recorded a 7% increase in quarterly volumes, with Business & Private Banking delivering 3% growth. Housing loan volumes also climbed 5%, with Australian home lending growth outperforming the broader market when excluding runoffs from the Advantedge unit. NAB previously confirmed it will migrate all Advantedge home loans to NAB-branded products by late 2026, a move aimed at streamlining operations and strengthening its retail banking footprint.
The bank’s net interest margin (NIM), a key measure of lending profitability, edged up 2 basis points to 1.80%, reflecting improved margins and disciplined cost management. However, NAB’s common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio, a crucial capital adequacy metric, slipped to 11.48% from 11.6% last year, raising some concerns among analysts.
Citi analysts described the result as a strong earnings beat, supported by an impressive quarter in Markets & Treasury and improved asset quality, though they flagged the lower CET1 ratio as a potential overhang.
NAB’s results cap off a positive earnings season for Australia’s major banks, following record half-year earnings from CBA and profit beats from Westpac and ANZ, underscoring the sector’s competitive momentum and solid financial performance.
