More than double treasury earnings helped the bank’s profit numbers, offsetting the impact of higher provisions. Its net interest income rose a modest 6.6% at Rs 2403 crore. It booked treasury earnings of Rs 198 crore as compared with Rs 90 crore in the year ago period.
Its net interest margin (NIM) for the quarter compressed to 2.96% as against 3.09% in the year-ago quarter.
The bank has revised its NIM guidance to 2.9-3% following the 50 repo rate cut in June from the 3-3.10% guidance given at the beginning of the fiscal, managing director Ashwani Kumar said.
Uco’s pre-provision operating profit stood 18% higher at Rs 1,562 crore against Rs 1,321 crore for the same period of preceding year.
Provisions and contingencies were higher at Rs 616 crore as compared with Rs 459 crore, despite a 69 basis points year-on-year fall in gross non-performing assets ratio to 2.63%.”We have made forward looking provisions in anticipation of the LCR (liquidity coverage ratio) guidelines,” the MD said.The bank’s gross advances grew 16.48% year-on-year to Rs 2.25 lakh crore while total deposits expanded by 11.37% to Rs 2.99 lakh crore.
