Punjab National Bank dips on worsening asset quality

The stock dipped 6% to Rs 88.25 on the BSE.

Punjab National Bank has dipped 6% to Rs 88.25 after reporting a sharp 93% year-on-year (yoy) decline in net profit at Rs 51 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2015 (Q3FY16) on account of higher provisioning towards non-performing assets (NPAs).  The bank made minor profit on back of Rs 909 crore of tax write-back. The state-owned bank had profit of Rs 775 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank’s net interest income (NII) down 2.7% yoy at Rs 4,120 crore as compared to Rs 4,233 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

The bank’s provisioning for bad loans jumped nearly three-fold during the quarter under review at Rs 3,775 crore against Rs 1,468 crore in previous year quarter.

During the quarter under review, the bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPA) ratio rose to 8.47% from 5.97%, while net NPA ratio increased to 5.86% from 3.82% in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. As of September 2015, the bank’s gross NPA and Net NPA stood at 6.36% and 3.99% respectively.

At 12:22 PM, the stock was down 5% at Rs 89.55 on the BSE. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 86.75 on January 20, 2016.

The trading volumes on the counter nearly doubled with a combined 18.81 million shares changed hands on the BSE and NSE.