Federal Bank dips 5% post December quarter earnings

The stock was down 5 per cent at Rs 87, falling 7 per cent from intra-day high of Rs 93 on the BSE on back of heavy volumes.

Shares of Federal Bank were trading 5 per cent lower at Rs 87 apiece, falling 7 per cent from the intra-day high of Rs 93 on BSE after it reported a mixed set of numbers for December 2018 quarter (Q3FY19). The stock was the largest loser among the Nifty Bank index. 

The private sector lender’s gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of total loans were 3.14 per cent at the end of December, compared with 3.11 per cent in the preceding quarter, and 2.52 per cent a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the net NPA ratio stood at 1.72 per cent against 1.36 per cent in the year-ago quarter. However, it improved from 1.78 per cent in the previous quarter.

Federal Bank reported 28 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in its net profit for the December quarter at Rs 334 crore. It had posted a profit of Rs 260 crore in Q3FY18.

Net interest income (the difference between interest earned and spent) grew by 13 per cent YoY at Rs 1,077 crore against Rs 950 crore posted last year. Other income reported by the bank stood at Rs 345 crore in Q3FY19 against Rs 229 crore in the year ago quarter.

In the past four trading days, the stock of Federal Bank was down 8.5 per cent, after Ganesh Sankaran, the executive director of the bank, announced that he will step down with effect from February 15, 2019. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up marginally by 0.50 per cent during the period.

At 01:52 PM, Federal Bank was trading 4.5 per cent lower at Rs 87.30, against 0.32 per cent decline in the benchmark index. The trading volumes on the counter jumped nearly three-fold with a combined 35.89 million equity shares changed hands on the BSE and NSE so far.