Punjab National Bank (PNB), the second largest public sector lender, has posted a standalone profit of Rs 586.33 crore for the fiscal fourth quarter ended March due to a surge in interest income.

The bank had reported a loss of Rs 697.20 crore in the earlier-year period.

Total income for the quarter ended 31 March 2021 rose to Rs 22,531.73 crore from Rs 16,388.32 crore a year ago.

Interest earned during the quarter surged 36% to Rs 18,789.53 crore from Rs 13,858.98 crore.

During the quarter, the bank earned an operating profit of Rs 5,634.31 crore versus Rs 3,932.28 crore a year ago.

The financial numbers are not strictly comparable as Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India were merged into PNB effective 1 April 2020, PNB said.

PNB’s asset quality showed marginal improvement as the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) came down to 14.12% of gross advances at the end of March 2021, from 14.21% a year ago.

Net NPAs also dipped to 5.73% as against 5.78 per cent in the year-ago period.

In absolute value terms, gross NPAs stood at Rs 1,04,423.42 crore at end of 2020-21, higher than Rs 73,478.76 crore reported in the previous fiscal.

Net NPAs were valued at Rs 38,575.70 crore versus Rs 27,218.89 crore in the earlier year period.

As a result, the provisioning for bad loans during the March quarter rose to Rs 5,293.89 crore compared to Rs 4,618.27 crore. However, provision other than tax and contingencies dropped to Rs 4,686.04 crore from Rs 4,901.31 crore.

For the full fiscal 2020-21, PNB's profit surged six-fold to Rs 2,021.62 crore compared to Rs 363.34 crore a year ago.

Total income during the fiscal rose to Rs 93,561.62 crore as against Rs 64,306.13 crore in FY20.

During 2020-21, the bank issued 106.70 crore shares having face value of Rs 2 each for cash to qualified eligible buyers pursuant to the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) at a premium of Rs 33.50 per share, aggregating Rs 3,788.04 crore.

"This has resulted in an increase of Rs 213.41 crore in the issued and paid up equity share capital and Rs 3,563.91 crore (Net of Issue Expenses) in share premium account," PNB said.

During the quarter and year ended 31 March 2021, PNB issued Basel III compliant additional tier-I bonds of Rs 495 crore through private placements.

The provision coverage ratio on 31 March 2021 rose to 80.14% versus 77.79% in the same period a year earlier.