Explained – Key factors why PSU bank shares surged up to 10% on Friday

Shares of public sector banks rallied on Friday, July 10, with the Nifty PSU Bank index emerging as one of the top sectoral gainers, driven by strong quarterly earnings from Indian Bank.Indian Bank led the gains, surging as much as 10%, while State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of India advanced between 2% and 9%.

The rally came after Indian Bank reported a healthy set of numbers for the June quarter. The lender posted a 10% year-on-year increase in net profit to ₹3,273 crore, while net interest income (NII) grew 17% to ₹7,435 crore.Asset quality continued to strengthen during the quarter, with the gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio improving to 1.86% from 1.98% in the March quarter. The net NPA ratio remained stable at 0.15%.

The bank also reported an improvement in profitability, with its domestic net interest margin (NIM) expanding to 3.41%, compared with 3.35% in both the preceding quarter and the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, provisions declined marginally on a sequential basis to ₹1,196 crore from ₹1,226 crore. The slippage ratio improved to 0.77% from 0.94% a year ago, while the credit-deposit (CD) ratio rose to 81.06% from 80.77% in the corresponding period last year.

Bank of Maharashtra is also scheduled to announce its results later today.