PNB shares down nearly 5% as earnings disappoint

Shares of Punjab National Bank (PNB) today fell by nearly 5 per cent after the company reported a 28.69 per cent decline in net profit for the quarter ended March 31.
Bucking a strong stock market trend, PNB's stock ended the day at Rs 800.05, down 4.16 per cent on the BSE. In intra-day, the scrip tanked 4.90 per cent to Rs 793.80.
At the NSE, the stock tumbled 4.77 per cent to settle at Rs 795.30.
In terms of volume, 7.38 lakh shares of the company were traded at the BSE, while over 60 lakh shares changed hands at the NSE during the day.

"PNB's operating numbers came below ours as well as street's estimates, while asset quality witnessed pressures (as compared to improvement witnessed in last quarter)," said Vaibhav Agrawal, VP Research - Banking, Angel Broking.
State-run PNB today reported a 28.69 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 806.35 crore for the quarter ended March 31, mainly on account of higher provisioning for bad loans.

The bank had a net profit of Rs 1,130.80 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13.
Total income of the bank increased to Rs 12,498.23 crore during the fourth quarter of 2013-14, from Rs 11,552.84 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Provisioning for bad loans rose 45 per cent to Rs 2,139 crore during the quarter, as against Rs 1,478 crore in the same period a year ago.
The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 5.25 per cent for the quarter under review, up from 4.27 per cent in the year-ago period. The net NPAs stood at 2.85 per cent at the end of the quarter.
In the broader market, the BSE benchmark Sensex gained 320.23 points or 1.36 per cent to settle at 23,871.23.