SBI, UBI, Indian Bank post steep fall in profit

Led by State Bank of India (SBI), three government-owned banks on Thursday declared steep fall in their net profits and two other banks reported net loss for the third quarter of the current fiscal.

The fall in profit or posting of net loss is due to higher provisioning towards bad loans or non-perfoming assets (NPA).

As a result, 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 Thursday went down to 14,028.55 points after opening at 14,518.65 points.

The Nifty PSU Bank index touched down to 1,983.90 points after opening at 2,045.30 points.

India's largest bank SBI declared a net profit of Rs.1,115.34 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 as compared to Rs.2,910.06 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.

The bank had provided Rs.8,483 crore (loan loss alone Rs.7,645 crore) during the period under review as against Rs.6,477 crore (loan loss Rs.4,810 crore) provided during the corresponding period of previous year.

The bank's total income has increased from Rs.43,783.97 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 to Rs.46,731.01 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

According to SBI, its gross NPA stood at 5.10 percent at the end of third quarter as against 4.90 percent for the period ended December 31, 2014.

On its part, Union Bank of India (UBI) declared a lower net profit of Rs.78.54 crore for the third quarter as against Rs.302.42 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year.

The bank's total income also came down from Rs.8,921 crore in last fiscal's third quarter to Rs.8,802.06 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

According to UBI, it has recognized deferred tax assets amounting to Rs.332.04 crore which was hitherto recognised as at the year-end, in accordance with the applicable Accounting Standards.

Similarly city-based Indian Bank also reported a steep fall in its net profit. The bank has posted a net profit of Rs.42.30 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 as compared to Rs.277.52 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.

Indian Bank's total income has increased from Rs.4,321.46 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 to Rs.4,438.40 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

On the other hand, Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce declared net losses for the period under review.

Bank of India posted a net loss of Rs.1,505.58 crore as compared to net profit of Rs. 173.38 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.

The bank's total income has decreased from Rs.11,947.45 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 to Rs.11,086.95 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

Oriental Bank of Commerce declared a net loss of Rs.424.69 crore as compared to net profit of Rs.19.56 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.

The bank's total income has decreased from Rs. 5,458.79 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 to Rs. 5,350.48 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.