Natwest shares were nearing a ten-year high on Tuesday morning, in anticipation of the bank's annual results due to be released on Friday.
At market open, the share price stood at 442.70p, inching closer to the February 2015 high of 445.85p, as reported by .
The lender reached its highest share price since 2015 last month and has continued to rally ahead of its results. Year-to-date, the bank's shares have risen over 100 per cent, making it the third highest performer in the FTSE100.
Analysts are predicting a pre-tax profit of £6.1bn for the Big Four bank, slightly down from £6.2bn last year.
Despite three interest rate cuts by the Bank of England in the past six months, analysts still anticipate a "solid" performance.
Over the next ten days, all Big Four banks, including Natwest, Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds, will report their annual results. Barclays will be the first to post on February 13, followed by Natwest the next day.
Lloyds will publish its annual results the following week on February 20, with HSBC posting on February 21. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, told City AM: "The FTSE 350 banks sector trades at its highest mark since 2008, when the Great Financial Crisis was at its height. "
AJ Bell's investment director Russ Mould commented: "Perhaps, just perhaps, the terrible memories of that are finally fading, as the banks – including Natwest – show strong balance sheets, generate record aggregate profits and return plenty of cash to shareholders as they manage risk and keep themselves out of regulatory trouble."
He also suggested that Natwest might be benefitting from the continued reduction in the government's stake in the bank: "Maybe the lenders have finally earned, and paid, their way back into investors’ favour," he added.
In its third quarter update in October, Natwest reported a significant 26% growth in profit, predominantly driven by lending activities. The bank’s pre-tax profit reached £1.7bn, which was nearly a third higher than the £1.3bn achieved during the same period last year.
After the recent financial outcomes were disclosed, Hargreaves Lansdown’s senior equity analyst Matt Britzman remarked: "Better incomes and costs drove the beat today, offset by higher impairments than expected, which does buck the trend we saw from Lloyds and Barclays."
It was noted that Natwest’s lending figures had been bolstered by its £2.3bn purchase of Metro Bank’s mortgage portfolio.
