Canara Bank, Andhra Bank posts lower net profit

Three government owned banks - Canara Bank, Andhra Bank and IDBI Bank - on Friday followed most other sister banks in posting a steep fall in their net profits or a whopping loss while the provisions against bad loans rocketed up.

On the stock bourses, banking stocks witnessed fall in their prices and in the process wiped out investors' wealth by several crores.

The Nifty Bank index on Friday went down to 13,971.50 points against the previous day's close of 14,028.55 points.

The Nifty PSU Bank index touched down to 1,968 points against Thursday's close of 1,983.90 points.

The Bengaluru-based Canara Bank closed the third quarter with a net profit of Rs.84.97 crore as steep fall from Rs.655.97 crore posted for the same quarter in the last fiscal.

The bank's total income also fell to Rs.12,050.63 crore for the period under review as against Rs.12,227.86 crore earned for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.

Canara Bank's provisions went up to Rs.1,428.85 crore for the quarter ended 31.12.2015 as against Rs.841.33 crore for the period ended December 31, 2014.

The bank's gross bad loans as on December 31, 2015 stood at Rs.19,813.44 crore up from Rs.10,573.57 crore as at December 31, 2014.

On its part, Andhra Bank said its profit has come down to Rs.34.46 crore from Rs.201.71 crore profit posted during the corresponding quarter the previous year.

Andhra Bank's total income increased to Rs.4,801.40 crore for the third quarter from the corresponding period of previous year's figure of Rs.4,540.61 crore.

The provisions against bad loans and others increased to Rs.905.56 crore from Rs.541.52 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014.

Andhra Bank's gross bad loans stood at Rs.9,520.92 crore at December 31, 2015 up from Rs.7,118.13 crore.

On the other hand IDBI Bank declared a whopping net loss of Rs.2,183.68 crore for the third quarter of the current fiscal as against a net profit of Rs.102.79 crore for the same quarter last year.

The bank's total income has decreased from Rs. 7,935.99 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 to Rs. 7,361.86 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

IDBI Bank's gross bad loans went up to Rs.19,615 crore at December 31, 2015 up from Rs. 12,140 crore at end of the same quarter last year.