Indian Bank Q3 net profit down 19 pc to Rs 303 crore

Indian Bank today reported a fall of nearly 19 per cent in net profit at Rs 303.06 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, due to higher operating expenses, provisioning and contingency reserve.

The public sector bank had registered a net profit of Rs 373.48 crore in the corresponding October-December period of previous fiscal.

Total income was up at Rs 4,903.07 crore from Rs 4,557.25 crore in the year-ago period.

Operating expenses of the bank rose to Rs 962.33 crore for the quarter from Rs 825.09 crore in the same quarter previous year.

The lender improved on its asset quality, with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) falling to 6.27 per cent of the gross advances by the end of December 31, 2017 as against 7.69 per cent by end-December 2016.

Net NPAs or bad loans also came down to 3.30 per cent of the net advances against 4.76 per cent.

Gross NPAs were Rs 9,595.15 crore as on December 31, 2017 against Rs 9,675.05 crore. Net NPAs were Rs 4,898.60 crore, as against Rs 5,798.34 crore.

Provisions and contingencies were raised to Rs 918.12 crore for third quarter of 2017-18 against Rs 540.29 crore for the same quarter of previous fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

However, provisioning for bad loans fell to Rs 385.49 crore for the third quarter of 2017-18 against Rs 546.84 crore in the year-ago period.

Non-performing loan provision coverage ratio stood at 64.73 per cent as on December 31, 2017.

Indian Bank stock traded 5.83 per cent up at Rs 359.15 on BSE.