Canara Bank Q2 profit drops 33% to Rs 357 crore

Pulled down by provisioning for rising bad loans, Canara Bank, on Wednesday, reported 32.5 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 356.9 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 of the current financial year.

The public sector bank had earned a net profit of Rs 528.8 crore in the same quarter previous financial year.

Total income also declined to Rs 12,187.1 crore during the quarter from Rs 12,477.9 crore earned in the year-ago period, Canara Bank said in a regulatory filing on stock exchanges.

The bank's asset quality slipped with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans more than doubled to 9.81 per cent of gross advances during the reported quarter, from 4.27 per cent a year ago.

Net NPAs also increased to 6.69 per cent of net advances as against 2.9 per cent in the same quarter last year.

As a result, provisions and contingencies rose to Rs 1,585.37 crore during the period from Rs 1,212.31 crore a year ago. Out of the total, provisioning for bad loans rose to 1,558.37 during the quarter as compared to Rs 979.17 crore in the same period a year ago.