Bank of Baroda rallies 7% on improved operating performance

The stock rallied 7% to Rs 166 on BSE in intra-day trade on back of heavy volumes

Bank of Baroda has rallied 7% to Rs 166 on BSE in intra-day trade after an improved operating performance in December quarter (Q3FY18).

The state-owned bank said its operating profit was Rs 36.50 billion during quarter ended Dec’17, thereby registering year-on-year (YoY) growth of 40.66%, driven by growth both in interest and fee income. The bank’s domestic credit registered YoY growth of 16.38% driven by retail loans growth of 33.37% and within retail loans, home loan growth of 44.33%.

Net interest income for the December-quarter rose 40% to Rs 43.94 billion over Rs 31.34 billion in year-ago quarter. The net interest margin, the difference between the yield on advances and cost of fund, improved sequentially to 2.72%.

However, the bank’s net profit fell to Rs 1.12 billion in the quarter ended December, compared with Rs 2.53 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The assets quality of the bank improved sequentially with net non-performing assets (NPA) ratio declined to 4.97% in December 2017 from 5.05% in September 2017 (Q2FY18). The amount of impaired assets as well as impaired assets ratios also decline, it added.

The ratio of gross NPA and restructured standard assets declined to 13.41% in Q3FY18 from 13.99% in Q2FY18. The ratio of net NPA and restructured standard assets too declined to 6.73% from 7.54% in previous quarter, the bank said.

The counter has seen a huge trading volumes with a combined 10.86 million shares already changed hands in first 45 minutes of trade on BSE and NSE.