Shares of Punjab National Bank PNB went up 7 per cent in Friday's trade to take their winning run to the eighth straight session. The stock rose by 7.38 per cent to hit a high of Rs 54.55 on the BSE, taking its 8 day rise to 24 per cent. Friday saw a rise in the counter after DIPAM approved the divestment of the bank's stake in UTI Asset Management Company in single or multiple tranches.
As of September 30th, PNB owned 15.22 per cent of the UTI Asset Management Company. A 7.36 per cent increase in the AMC stock led to a 52 crore increase in the stock of the company. The stock of AMC hit a new high of 740.15 on the BSE today.
PNB said the timeline, the value of the divestment and the price at which the shares will be divested would be decided in a filing to the BSE. The UTI AMC is sponsored by four sponsors, namely, State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank. They collectively hold 45.16 per cent of the shares of UTI AMC.
CARE Ratings has revised the outlook for the bank's AT-1, Tier II bonds and Infrastructure bonds from 'Stable' to 'Positive'. On Friday, the scrip was not on the F&O ban list.
The positive outlook reflects CARE Ratings' expectation of improvement in profitability and asset quality parameters in the medium term, along with comfortable capitalisation by the bank. The bank saw a reduction in both the GNPA and NNPA over the last two years, ending March 31, 2022, and H 1 FY 23. The rating agency said that CARE Ratings expects the same to continue going forward.
It is seen as a positive in the improvement in asset quality parameters with gross non-performing assets GNPA reducing below 8.5 per cent or net non-performing assets NNPA below 3 per cent on a sustained basis.
The PNB has seen improvement in the capitalisation levels with a cushion over the regulatory requirement, CARE said.