PNB shares sink 7% as Q4 profit slumps

Shares of PNB today plunged nearly 7 per cent after the company reported 62 per cent decline in net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31.
The scrip of the country's second largest public sector bank tanked 6.72 per cent to settle at Rs 145.65 on the BSE. During the day, it tumbled 8.74 per cent to Rs 142.50 -- its 52-week low.
On the NSE, the stock dipped 6.57 per cent to end at Rs 145.70.
The company's market value declined by Rs 1,946.38 crore to Rs 27,011.62 crore.
"PNB results were below estimates with NII lower by 5 per cent. Asset quality has deteriorated with GNPAs higher," said Ravi Shenoy, AVP-Midcaps Research, Motilal Oswal Securities.

On the volume front, 33.77 lakh shares of the company changed hands at the BSE and over two crore shares were traded at the NSE during the day.

PNB today reported 62 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 306.5 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31 on account of higher provisioning for bad loans.
Punjab National Bank (PNB) had logged a profit of Rs 806.3 crore in the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal.
Provision for NPAs rose by a whopping 87 per cent to Rs 3,281 crore in the fourth quarter of 2014-15 fiscal as compared to Rs 1,755 crore.

The decline in net profit is despite the fact that the bank had a write back of Rs 938 crore during the quarter. The fourth quarter profit in absolute terms is one of the lowest in past 5 years.
The net interest income declined by 5.3 per cent at Rs 3,792 crore against Rs 4,002 crore in the same quarter of 2013-14.
As far as asset quality of the bank is concerned, the Gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) rose to 6.55 per at the end of March 2015, from 5.25 per cent a year ago. The net NPAs too rose to 4.06 per cent against 2.85 per cent at March 2014.