Shares of Punjab & Sind Bank on Monday jumped nearly 7 percent as the company turned profitable in the fourth quarter of FY21 after eight consecutive quarters of losses. The stock rallied 6.60 percent to Rs 21.80 on BSE. On NSE, it jumped 6 percent to Rs 21.80.

The state-run bank turned profitable in the fourth quarter of FY21 after eight consecutive quarters of losses, posting a profit after tax of Rs 161 crore on the back of improvement in recoveries and decline in bad loans. The lender had registered a net loss of Rs 236.3 crore in the year-ago period. However, for the full year, its loss widened to Rs 2,732.9 crore as against Rs 990.8 crore in FY20.

”The profitability is due to our focussed monitoring and also on account of recoveries. Though it has been challenging times, we were able to make a reasonable amount of recoveries. ”We were also able to arrest slippages to a great extent. This has helped in bringing down the credit costs, which enabled us to register profit,” the bank’s Managing Director and CEO S Krishnan told reporters on Saturday.

The bank’s asset quality showed improvement, with gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) declining to 13.76 percent from 14.18 percent. Net NPA also halved to 4.04 percent during the reporting quarter from 8.03 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year. As a result, the provisions and contingencies fell to Rs 4.38 crore in the reported quarter from Rs 817.83 crore in the year-ago period.

Click here

: For latest news and updates on earnings

First Published:May 24, 2021 1:07 PM IST