Punjab National BankProfit ₹5,253 Cr, GNPA 2.78%, NIM Rising

Punjab National Bank reported Q1 FY27 net profit of ₹5,253 Cr and operating profit of ₹7,519 Cr, up 6.2% year on year, with core operating profit up 35.7%.

Advances grew 12.7% to ₹12.73 lakh Cr, or 15.4% excluding low-yielding IBPC, while deposits rose 8.5% to ₹17.25 lakh Cr. Domestic NIM improved to 2.64% from 2.61% and global NIM to 2.50% from 2.47%, with management promising improvement every quarter. Gross NPA fell to 2.78% from 3.78% a year ago, net NPA to 0.28%, and PCR was 97.23%. Cost-to-income fell to 50.31% from 55.31%. The bank added ₹390 Cr of floating provisions for ECL, taking the total to ₹2,435 Cr against an estimated one-time ECL hit of ₹9,500 Cr to ₹10,000 Cr, which management says explains the flat sequential profit.

It targets US$2.5 billion of FCNR deposits, has shed about ₹40,000 Cr of low-yielding corporate loans, and guides gross NPA below 2.5%, net NPA below 0.3% and cost-to-income of 47% to 48% by year end.