State-owned
Punjab National Bank (
PNB ) on Friday posted a 12.7 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 1,246 crore during the first quarter of the current fiscal due to growth in interest income.
The bank had a net profit of Rs 1,105 crore during the April-June quarter of the previous fiscal.
Interest income during the quarter registered a healthy growth of 26.8 per cent at Rs 10,545 crore against Rs 8,315 crore in the first quarter of the previous fiscal, PNB Chairman and Managing Director K R Kamath said.
However, the gross non-performance asset (NPA) as a proportion of advances went up significantly to 3.34 per cent against 2 per cent at the end of June last year. Net NPA also rose to 1.68 per cent during the period from 0.86 per cent in the same period of previous year.
In absolute terms, the gross NPA rose by 104 per cent to Rs 9,988.18 crore while net NPA increased by 135.1 per cent to Rs 4,917.04 crore at the end of June 2012 on year-on-year basis.
Asked about rising bad loans, Kamath said "while we are concerned about the NPA, PNB is focusing on recovery and NPA position would be better in the coming quarters".
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