After staying fairly positive right from the start of the session, Kotak Mahindra Bank shares tumbled around mid afternoon when the bank announced its fourth quarter results. But then, its spell in negative territory lasted not more than a few minutes, as it swiftly rebounded thanks to a good jump in its quarterly earnings.
The bank reported a 40.3% jump in net profit at Rs 976.5 crore for the quarter ended March 2017, over the year-ago quarter. The increase was on the back of a rise in other income, operating income and net interest income, the bank said.
But for weak asset quality and higher provisions the bank had to make, the results would have been much better. The bank's net interest income was up 16.4% in the March 2017 quarter, compared to year-ago quarter and the net interest margin was 4.6%, up slightly from 4.49% (sequentially).
Gross NPAs were up 12.6% at 3578.6 crore in the fourth quarter and Net NPAs increased 24.6% to Rs 1718.1 crore, compared to previous quarter. In terms of percentage of gross advances, Gross NPAs rose 17 basis points to 2.59%, while Net NPAs were up 19 basis points to 1.26% in the fourth quarter, compared to year-ago quarter.
The bank made provisions of Rs 267.4 crore in the March 2017 quarter. That was up 39.2% from the December 2016 quarter and up 33.4% from year-ago quarter.
Kotak Mahindra Bank shares ended the session at Rs 909, up nearly 1% from Wednesday's closing price. The stock touched a low of Rs 890.80 and a high of Rs 918 in the session.
