NatWest shares fall 8.4% after profit drops

NatWest shares fell 8.4 percent in London on Friday after the UK bank reported a drop in third-quarter profit.

The bank's shares fell to £5.82, or $7.81, making NatWest the biggest faller on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index. The wider FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent in midday trading.

NatWest said profit after tax fell 4.1 percent to £1.53 billion in the July-to-September period from a year earlier. Impairment charges rose 81 percent to £277 million, while tax costs also increased.

Those costs offset a seven-percent rise in revenue to £4.64 billion.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said NatWest had ended the banks' quarterly reporting season with a “fair to middling” performance that was not enough for the bank to upgrade its full-year guidance.

The results contrasted with other major British banks. Lloyds reported Thursday that third-quarter revenue rose nine percent alongside higher profits, while HSBC and Barclays each posted strong rises in July-to-September net profit.