With the burden of provisioning for bad loans easing, Bank of India reported a 41 per cent increase in second quarter net profit at ₹179 crore, against ₹127 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Asset quality pressures also appeared to be gradually waning with fresh slippages in the reporting quarter amounting to ₹2,141 crore against ₹4,037 crore in the preceding quarter and ₹6,915 crore in the March 2017 quarter.
Net interest income (the difference between interest earned and interest expended) was up 7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) at ₹2,908 crore.
Non-interest income, which includes commission, exchange and brokerage, profit from sale of investments, and profit from exchange transactions was down 15 per cent y-o-y at ₹1,707 crore. Global net interest margin was flat at 2.15 per cent.
Global deposits increased 8 per cent to ₹5,43,716 crore. The share of low-cost current account, savings account deposits in domestic deposits improved to 39.01 per cent in September 2017 from 36 per cent in September 2016.
Global advances were almost flat at ₹3,90,687 crore. During the reporting quarter, retail advances grew 17 per cent; MSME advances were up 8 per cent and agriculture edged up 2 per cent. Corporate advances, however, shrunk 6 per cent.
The share of Retail, Agriculture and MSME (RAM) Advances in domestic credit improved to 52.35 per cent in September 2017 from 48.80 per cent in September 2016.
NPAs decline The public sector bank’s gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) declined gradually to ₹49,307 crore in the September quarter from ₹51,019 crore in the June quarter and ₹52,045 crore in the March 2017 quarter.
Provisions for bad and doubtful assets were lower at ₹1,867 crore in the reporting quarter against ₹2,156 crore in the preceding quarter and ₹4,484 crore in the March quarter.
Bank of India’s shares closed at ₹196.25 apiece, down 1.90 per cent over the previous close, on the BSE on Friday.