Nedbank advised shareholders on Thursday that it was expecting an increase in earnings due to the recent weakening in the rand.

The banking group said it expects its headline earnings per share for the half year to June 2005 to be between 40 percent and 50 percent better than the 245 cents per share reported in the first half of 2004.

Attributable earnings per share were likely to be between 39 percent and 49 percent higher than the 247 cents per share realised in the previous comparable period.

Nedbank said that the 11 percent decline in the value of the rand from R5.97/$ on May 5, 2005, to R6.67/$ on June 30, 2005, had resulted in foreign exchange gains of around R165-million, which was R70-million higher than the bank was anticipating.

The announcement was made after the market closed. Nedbank shares ended 1.54 percent lower at 83 rand.

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