The big four banks were on form in May and played a key role in driving the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) higher over the period.
Here's a snapshot of how the big four banks performed last month:
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ)
The ANZ share price recorded a gain of 5.85% last month. All of this gain came in the final week of May after investors started to pile into the banks again. With the economy opening up quicker than many expected and government stimulus appearing to be working very well, investors may believe the banks have been oversold. This could also mean that ANZ has overestimated its COVID-19 impacts of $1.031 billion.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA)
The CBA share price was a comparatively poor performer in May with a gain of just 1.7%. During the month Australia's largest bank released its third quarter update. For the three months, CBA's cash net profit from continuing operations came in at approximately $1.3 billion. This was a 41% reduction on the average quarterly cash net profit it achieved in the first half. This was driven largely by remediation charges and COVID-19 provisions. The bank made an additional credit provision of $1.5 billion for the potential longer term impacts of COVID-19.
National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB)
The NAB share price pushed a sizeable 5% higher last month. Once again, it appears as though investors believe that its shares were oversold during the pandemic. This was good news for shareholders who took part in the bank's share purchase plan (SPP). The bank increased the SPP materially to $1,250 million and raised the funds at an issue price of $14.15 per new share. NAB's shares finished the month almost 26% higher than the SPP price.
Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC)
The Westpac share price was on form in May and pushed 5.8% higher. This also appears to have been driven by bargain hunters swooping in at the end of the month on the belief that things will not be as bad as first feared. Earlier this year Westpac announced approximately $1.6 billion of additional impairment charges predominantly related to COVID-19 impacts. If things turn out better than expected, some of these provisions could be reversed. Which would be a positive for future dividend payments.
