Punjab National Bank Q3 net profit rises 2.5 per cent to Rs 775 crore, stock falls

Punjab National Bank on Tuesday posted a marginal 2.5 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 774.56 crore for its third quarter ended December 31, 2014, on account of higher provisioning for bad loans.

PNB, the country's second largest public sector bank by assets, had reported net profit of Rs 755.41 crore for the corresponding quarter a year ago.

The bank's total income increased to Rs 12,904.85 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 11,922.30 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Poor performance of the bank pulled its share price down by nearly 7 per cent to Rs 179.20 a piece on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after the numbers were announced.

Operating profit of PNB remained flat at Rs 2,751 crore in Q3 as against Rs 2,702 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY14.

As far as PNB's asset quality is concerned, gross NPAs as a percentage to total advances rose to 5.97 per cent from 4.96 per cent in the year-ago period. Its net NPAs went up to 3.82 per cent from 2.80 per cent at the end of December 2013, PNB said in a statement.

Gross NPA in absolute terms rose to Rs 22,211.43 crore in the reporting quarter as compared to Rs 16,595.84 crore in the three month period to December 31, 2013. However, total provisions, excluding for income tax, made during the Q3 of the current financial year were Rs 1,467.77 crore as against Rs 1,590.04 crore in the year-ago period.

During the first three quarters of FY15, PNB has registered just 8.6 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 2,755 crore, compared to Rs 2,536 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank's total income for the nine month period in 2014-15 stood at Rs 38,750 crore, compared to Rs 35,302 crore in the same period of the previous financial year.