Canara Bank doing well at the markets despite poor Q1 profits

Shares of Canara Bank Ltd., a PSU lender, rose for the 5th day in a row despite quarterly profit nearly halving as the bank held its non performing assets steady on a sequential basis.

Canara Bank said its first quarter Net non performing assets inched up to 2.47 percent versus 2.65 percent in the fourth quarter. In terms of actual numbers, the net NPAs stood at 8,888 crore rupees compared with 8,741 crores, indicating a stability after sharp rises in the previous four quarters.

Similarly, Canara Bank's Gross non performing assets stood at 3.98 percent compared with 3.89 percent sequentially. In numbers, they translated to 13,080 crores versus 13,039 crore rupees.

As a consequence, Canara Bank rose 1.6 percent, or 5 rupees, to 314 rupees on the National Stock Exchange, where 57 lakh shares were traded till 2.15 pm compared with a 5-day average of 45.7 lakh shares.

Canara Bank said its first quarter net profit slumped to 479 crore rupees compared with 807 crore rupees in the year-ago period. Its Net Interest Income rose a meagre 3.3 percent to 2,516 crores versus 2,430 crore rupees.

(Image credits: Indiatimes)