Punjab National Bank posts fourth-quarter profit as bad loans ease

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Punjab National Bank reported on Tuesday a fourth-quarter net profit of 2.62 billion rupees ($41 million) as its bad loans eased.

Bad loans as a percentage of total loans eased to 12.53 percent at end-March, from 13.7 percent three months earlier, and 12.9 percent a year ago, the lender said in a statement.

New Delhi-based PNB, India's fourth-biggest lender by assets, had posted a net loss of 53.67 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter.

Shares in PNB rose more than 5 percent after the results.

($1 = 64.1200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)