Punjab & Sind Bank Q1 net drops 52% as bad loans mount

State-owned Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) has registered a fall of 52.45 per cent in its net profit at Rs 25.37 crore for the first quarter to June of 2017-18 on account of surging bad loans.
Net profit in April-June of 2016-17 stood at Rs 53.35 crore.
Total income also fell to Rs 2,062.57 crore during the June quarter, as against Rs 2,279.11 crore in the same period of 2016-17.
There was a spurt in the bank's bad loan proportion as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of total advances rose to 11.33 per cent by June 30, 2017, as against 7.23 per cent as of June-end of 2016.

Net NPAs jumped to 7.94 per cent of net advances by June 2017, up from 5 per cent in the year-ago period.
In absolute terms, gross NPAs were Rs 6,693.36 crore by June-end of this fiscal, up from Rs 4,565.74 crore in the same period a year ago. Net NPAs stood at Rs 4,511.40 crore against Rs 3,078.41 crore earlier.

Provisions to cover bad assets moved up to Rs 259.20 crore for the quarter under review, from Rs 206.70 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.
In comparison to the last quarter (March 2017), net profit of the bank as on June 30, 2017, surged to Rs 25.37 crore, registering a growth of 204.56 per cent.

"Net interest income increased from Rs 561.13 crore to Rs 565.79 crore, compared to the same period in the last fiscal," Bank CMD Jatinderbir Singh said in a statement.
Stock of the bank closed 2.03 per cent down at Rs 50.60 on the BSE.