Dena Bank Q1 loss narrows to ₹132.65 crore

State-run Dena Bank on Saturday reported an improvement with the net loss reducing to Rs 132.65 crore in the quarter ended June 30, helped by decline in NPAs and better net interest margin.

The bank had reported a loss of Rs 279.35 crore in the same quarter last year.

"Our provisions on NPAs have come down which resulted in reduction in loss this quarter. Last year in the June quarter, our NPAs provisioning was Rs 598 crore which has come down to Rs 434.58 crore this year," chairman and managing director Ashwani Kumar told reporters here.

The bank's net interest margins improved to 2.44 per cent in the first quarter from 2.02 per cent on a decrease in cost of deposit and increase is yield on advances.

Cost of deposit came down by 92 basis points to 5.87 per cent from 6.79 per cent.

The total deposits got reduced by 4.61 per cent by shedding bulk deposits, while the advances were down 7.78 per cent. The credit-deposit ratio stood at 70.07 per cent.

In the quarter under review, the PSU lender received interest on income tax refund to the tune to Rs 70.53 crore which helped the net interest income to improve, Kumar said.

Net interest income rose to Rs 675.07 crore from Rs 620.88 crore a year ago.