Commonwealth Bank Shares Surge by Most in Six Years on Profit Beat

By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--Shares in Commonwealth Bank of Australia are on course for their biggest one-day gain since 2020, after the country's largest lender beat analysts' first-half profit forecasts.

CBA on Wednesday reported a net profit for the six months through December of 5.37 billion Australian dollars, or about US$3.80 billion. The average analyst forecast had been for a statutory net profit of almost A$5.17 billion.

The beat came amid strong lending growth, which supported revenue of A$15.00 billion, about 1.3% above consensus, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha.

The stock was up by 7.9% at A$171.26 midway through Wednesday's session. That would be its largest daily gain since the 2020 March quarter, when global stocks were swinging wildly amid uncertainty generated by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shares in Commonwealth Bank, which held roughly 25% of Australia's home-loan market as of Dec. 31, had been in retreat since hitting a record A$190.40 in June.

Investors had flocked to Australian bank stocks, which are typically perceived as low-risk bets amid wider geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.

Analysts have said that many investors subsequently pivoted to Australia's then-underperforming materials sector, which has since risen about 50%. The S&P/ASX 200 financials sector is flat over the same period.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 10, 2026 21:22 ET (02:22 GMT)