Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Friday reported a 2 per cent increase in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2017 at Rs 560.6 crore compared to a net profit of Rs 549 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Net interest income for the quarter under review increased 3.5 per cent to Rs 4,015.2 crore. Operating profit during the second quarter ended September 30 stood at Rs 3,279 crore, showing a year-on-year increase of 20 per cent.

Sunil Mehta, Managing Director & CEO, PNB, said that fresh slippages for the quarter under review stood at Rs 3,500 crore, much lower than the slippage of Rs 6,649 crore in the previous quarter.

Net interest margin for the quarter under review improved to 2.62 per cent from 2.56 per cent in the previous quarter.

Stake dilution

On the proposed stake dilution in PNB Housing Finance, Mehta said that PNB's stake level could go down up to 30 per cent from the current 38.86 per cent. "The window that is available to us is about 9 per cent," Mehta said, adding that PNB Housing Finance would continue to be a core associate company of PNB.

Asset quality

As on end September 2017, Gross Non Performing Assets (GNPA) ratio reduced to 13.31 per cent against 13.63 per cent as on September 2016. Net NPA ratio has reduced to 8.44 per cent from 9.10 per cent in September 2016.

Srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in