Canara Bank soars on strong quarterly numbers

Shares of Canara Bank are trading higher by 4% to Rs 455 on the BSE after the net profit jumped 60.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 656 crore boosted by higher other income and lower provisions.

Net interest income grew 6.9 percent to Rs 2,380.5 crore during October-December quarter compared to Rs 2,227 crore in same quarter last fiscal, the other income shot up 38 percent on yearly basis to Rs 1,176.2 crore and operating profit jumped 13 percent to Rs 1,797.30 crore in the quarter ended December 2014.

However, asset quality weakened slightly during the quarter as gross non-performing assets (NPA) increased 56 basis points Y-o-Y (up 43 bps Q-o-Q to 3.35 percent and net NPA rose 3 bps year-on-year (up 11 bps sequentially) to 2.42 percent.

The stock opened at Rs 435, touched a high of Rs 458 on the BSE. A total of 920,201 shares changed hands on the BSE so far.