PSU banks extend gain; Uco Bank, Dena Bank up 5%

At 01:19 pm; Nifty PSU Bank index was up 0.36% at 2,981, extending its past two days 3% gain on the NSE

Shares of select public sector undertaking (PSU) banks were quoting higher for the third straight trading days ahead of the finance Minister Piyush Goyal meeting today with the chief executives of 15 public sector banks (PSBs) in Mumbai.

Dena Bank, Uco Bank and Corporation Bank were up 5% each, while Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Overseas Bank, Andhra Bank and Allahabad Bank were up in the range of 3% to 4%. Shares of State Bank of India (SBI) however, trading 0.17% lower at Rs 269 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 01:19 pm; Nifty PSU Bank index was up 0.36% at 2,981, extending its past two days 3% gain. On comparison, the benchmark Nifty 50 index was trading 0.33% lower at 10,732, up 1.3% during the period.

Sources said Goyal would meet heads and senior executives of PSBs based in the western and southern regions to discuss issues plaguing banks and the way forward for the banking system. The meeting is organised by SBI and will be attended by Rajiv Kumar, secretary in the department of financial services, along with other finance ministry officials, the Business Standard reported.

The government will discuss a road map that banks are supposed to prepare to strengthen their risk mechanism systems. Issues related to multiple banking arrangements, the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework, and plugging gaps in credit flow were likely be discussed, bank executives said, added report. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT

Moody's Investors Service expects the Indian government's recapitalization plan will still broadly resolve the regulatory capital needs of the country's 21 PSBs and help augment the banks' loan-loss buffers, but will be insufficient to support credit growth.

Under its recapitalization plan, the government plans to infuse Rs 650 billion into the PSBs in fiscal 2019, following the Rs 900 billion infused in fiscal 2018.

Moody's Indian affiliate ICRA says that, with the accelerated recognition of stressed assets during FY2018, the asset quality problems of the banks peaked in March 2018 and further additions to gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) will decline with fresh slippages falling to around 3.0% during FY2019 compared to 7.1% during FY2018 and 5.5% during FY2017.

With the likely resolution of large stressed borrowers under the insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC) 2016 and proposed resolution under the revised framework for resolution of stressed assets, ICRA expects the recoveries and upgrades to surpass the fresh addition to GNPAs during FY2019. This is expected in turn to result in a decline in the GNPAs and net NPAs to below 9% and 5% respectively by March 2019.

COMPANY	LATEST	1-WEEK BEFORE	GAIN(%)
ALLAHABAD BANK	45.10	40.20	12.19
CENTRAL BANK	78.55	73.00	7.60
CANARA BANK	274.90	255.65	7.53
PUNJAB NATL.BANK	89.05	82.90	7.42
CORPORATION BANK	30.00	28.20	6.38
UNION BANK (I)	94.50	89.10	6.06
INDIAN BANK	357.00	337.85	5.67
ORIENTAL BANK	81.80	78.35	4.40
BANK OF MAHA	13.97	13.39	4.33
ANDHRA BANK	36.40	35.05	3.85
UCO BANK	19.45	18.75	3.73
BANK OF INDIA	99.80	96.70	3.21
J & K BANK	58.10	56.40	3.01
SYNDICATE BANK	50.10	48.65	2.98
I O B	16.55	16.10	2.80
DENA BANK	16.90	16.45	2.74
PUN. & SIND BANK	32.60	31.90	2.19
UNITED BANK (I)	11.71	11.59	1.04
ST BK OF INDIA	269.10	266.75	0.88