Gulf Bank Q3 net profit plunges 98 pct, shares down

Kuwait's Gulf Bank (GBKK.KW) posted a 98 percent plunge in its third-quarter net profit, driving its shares down 3 percent on Monday.

Net income in the three months to Sept. 30 came in at 469,000 dinars ($1.64 million), after 29.925 million dinars of net profit in the same period in 2008, the bank said in a statement on the bourse website on Monday.

The lender made a net loss of 7.02 million dinars in the first nine months, compared with 85.96 million dinars of net profit in the year-earlier period, it said.