Exchange, trading up $1 at $40 yesterday on a volume of 36,124 shares after the company announced record results last week.

The prospect of listing the shares on the NASDAQ exchange has also driven the shares higher, setting 52-week record after 52-week record. The share price last hit $40 in 1998, before a private member's bill to exempt the bank from the 60/40 ownership rule was rejected in the House of Assembly and the share price plummeted.

Currently, foreign ownership of the bank is restricted to 40 percent. But Bank president and CEO Henry Smith says that to raise additional capital, the bank needs more investment from abroad and if the shares are floated on the NASDAQ, 60/40 ownership cannot be guaranteed. The Finance Ministry has since indicated that the 60/40 rule would be relaxed for all banks.

The bank has said all along that its share price was undervalued and that taking the company onto the NASDAQ would be good for shareholder value.

The recent meteoric rise in the price of shares started at the beginning of June when the debate on 60/40 was rekindled. Share prices started to edge up to $29.50 after lolling at $28 for months.

The increase brings with it a record market capitalisation for the bank, which now stands at more than $957 million.

Nearly 80 percent of the 6,000 shareholders in the bank are Bermudians and include schools, churches, pension funds, charities, societies and the Police Service.

On Monday of last week, the bank announced profits of $106.1 million, a 44 percent increase over the previous year. The next day, the bank decided to give out an extra share to shareholders for every seven they own, in addition to an incremental cash dividend of 60 cents per share and a quarterly dividend of 27 cents. The dividends will total more than $16 million.

Yesterday's increase helped send the BSX index up 1.56 percent to 1,728.70 -- only points short of its all-time high of 1,733.5931.

Henry Smith