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Punjab National Bank (PNB) has registered a 7.8 per cent increase in net profit for the third quarter ended December 2010 at Rs 1,090 crore (Rs 1,011 crore). This performance has come despite provision of Rs 235 crore for pension liability during the quarter under review and increased pressure on treasury operations this fiscal.
Total income for the quarter under review increased by 27.9 per cent to Rs 7,976 crore (Rs 6,236 crore). Net interest margin (NIM) improved to 4.13 per cent for the three months period ended December 31, 2010. PNB had provided in the first half Rs 250 crore towards pension liability and is expected to provide for another Rs 235 crore under the same head in the last quarter of the current fiscal. Even as the bank maintained the same level of trading profits from government securities at about Rs 87 crore in the third quarter on a year-on-year basis, the fourth quarter may see some dip in trading profits on treasuries, according to Mr K.R. Kamath, Chairman and Managing Director of PNB.
PNB is likely to register lower profits from treasury operations this fiscal when compared to the previous fiscal. The bank is betting on better core operations in the fourth quarter to offset the likely reduction in treasury gains.
On the non-performing assets (NPA) provisioning front, PNB has provided a sum of Rs 1,462 crore for the nine months ended December 31, 2010, which is nearly thrice the amount of Rs 532 crore provided in the same period in the previous year.
“There has not been concentration of NPAs in any sector. But there have been some temporary aberrations in some accounts. We are quite hopeful of turning around a better performance on the upgradation front in the current quarter,” Mr Kamath said when asked whether the NPA situation was deteriorating.
Gross NPA at end December 2010 stood at Rs 4,541 crore, which is about 2.03 per cent of advances. Gross NPA at end December 2009 stood at Rs 3,155 crore. Net NPA level at end December 2010 stood at Rs 1,575 crore against Rs 811 crore at end December 2009.
The bank's scrip was down 1.81 per cent at Rs 1,115 on the BSE on Friday.
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