PNB share price hit 52-week low on biggest ever quarterly loss

Punjab National Bank share price tanked 6 per cent on Tuesday after the public sector bank posted largest ever quarterly loss of Rs 13,416.91 crore for the January-March period. The stock went down by 3.80 per cent to end at Rs 86 on BSE. In intraday trade, the stock dipped 6.26 per cent to Rs 83.80, its 52-week low level.

The company's market valuation fell by Rs 938.07 crore to Rs 23,740.93 crore in just a day.

Scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) posted largest ever quarterly loss of Rs 13,416.91 crore for the January-March period, mainly on account of high provisioning for bad loans.

The bank had reported a standalone profit of Rs 261.90 crore in the fourth quarter of 2016-17.

A K Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital, said the loss was not surprising given the fraud, although he added the worst was not yet over for the bank.

"The full write-off is not yet done," said Prabhakar to PTI, adding he would wait for comments from the management on growth prospects for the bank.

The total income for the fourth quarter also declined to Rs 12,945.68 crore from Rs 14,989.33 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank has witnessed deterioration in gross net performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans, which rose to 18.38 per cent of gross advances at the end of March this year, as against 12.53 per cent year ago.

Net NPAs also soared to 11.24 per cent against 7.81 per cent a year ago.

“During the quarter ended March 31, a fraud was detected at Brady House, Mumbai Branch of the bank involving certain accounts under gems & jewellery sector where through apparent connivance between these entities and few employees of the bank, some Letters of Undertaking (LOUs) or Foreign Letter of Credit (FLCs) were issued fraudulently and in unauthorised manner to certain overseas branches of Indian banks through the misuse of SWIFT system of the bank, which was then not integrated with CBS,” PNB said in a press release.