Bank of India posts quarterly loss as bad loan provision jumps

(Reuters) - Bank of India Ltd posted a quarterly loss on Monday as the state-run lender set aside more provisions for bad loans.

Net loss was https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/63c837ab-8b5b-4230-a77f-4adacd3faa8f.pdf 11.56 billion rupees ($158.43 million) for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of 1.79 billion rupees a year earlier.

Provisions for bad loans jumped 51.5 percent to 28.28 billion rupees, while total provisions surged 71.2 percent to 33.43 billion rupees.

However, asset quality improved slightly from the previous quarter, with gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans standing at 16.36 percent at end-September, compared with 16.66 percent at end-June. This was still higher than 12.62 percent a year ago.

Shares of the lender closed 5 percent lower ahead of the results.

($1 = 72.9650 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)