PNB trades jubilantly on plan to sell some of its bad loans to ARCs

Punjab National Bank (PNB) is currently trading at Rs. 928.15, up by 73.70 points or 8.63% from its previous closing of Rs. 854.45 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 870.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 960.35 and Rs. 870.00 respectively. So far 327021 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 960.35 on 16-May-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 402.20 on 04-Sep-2013. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 960.35 and Rs. 779.80 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 33265.17 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 58.87% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 35.85% and 5.27% respectively. Punjab National Bank (PNB) is planning to sell some of its bad loans to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs). In this regard, the bank’s board may meet by the end of the month. The bank had for the last couple of years, taken a conscious decision of not offloading a portion of its NPAs to ARCs. The bank’s asset quality had taken a hit due to the slowdown in the economy. PNB’s financial performance in 2013-14 was weighed down by an increase in provisioning for NPAs and also depreciation in investments.