Brokerages maintain bearish views on PNB shares. Here's why

MUMBAI: Most brokerages have retained a bearish view on on persistent asset quality overhang.

JP Morgan has retained 'underweight' while Jefferies has retained 'underperform'. Both Citi and have retained 'sell'.

Punjab National Bank on Friday posted a standalone profit of Rs 586.3 crore for the March quarter. The state-owned lender's gross non-performing assets increased to 14.12 per cent in the March quarter compared to 12.99 per cent in the previous quarter.
"PNB’s net NPL (non-performing loans) is much higher relative to both SBI and BOB (Bank of Baroda), and hence, normalization of earnings is likely to happen later," said JP Morgan.

Meanwhile, CLSA has upgraded the stock to outperform as valuation is inexpensive at 0.4 times FY23 adjusted price-to-book estimate but given low return on equity expectation for Punjab National Bank, the brokerage prefers State Bank of India among public sector banks. CLSA has raised target price on the stock to Rs 47 from Rs 22.