Canara Bank Q1 profit up 12% at Rs 281 crore; bad loans decline marginally

During the quarter, NII -- the difference between interest earned on loans and that paid on deposits jumped 43 percent YoY to Rs 3,882.9 crore from Rs 2,713 crore in the June quarter last year.

However, other income or non-interest income fell 13 percent to Rs 1,832.9 crore from Rs 2,108.5 crore in Q1FY18, weighed down by a dip in treasury income.

Asset quality

Provisions during the quarter inched up 17 percent to Rs 2,582.3 crore (Rs 2,466 crore towards bad loans) from Rs 2,203.7 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

In January to March period, provisions for the public sector bank had shot up to Rs 9,075 crore.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a ratio of gross advances improved to 11.05 percent from 11.84 percent in the March quarter ending 2018. A year ago, the gross NPA ratio was lower at 10.56 percent in the June quarter of 2017.

Net NPA ratio also declined to 6.91 percent from 7.48 percent at the end of March 2018 and 7.09 percent as on June 2017.

Loans and Deposits

Total advances edged up by 1.2 percent to Rs 3.86 lakh crore aided by 36 percent growth in retail lending book and agriculture growth of 12 percent.

Total deposits also grew in the range of 1.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 5.33 lakh crore.

The bank made a cash recovery from bad loans that aggregated to Rs 3537 crore during the quarter.

Domestic net interest margin (NIM) also witnessed improvement to 2.75 percent in Q1FY19 from 2.56 percent in Q1FY18.

Canara Bank shares ended at Rs 257.60 per share, higher by 1.78 percent as against 0.09 percent increase in BSE Sensex.