Punjab National Bank Shares Rise 11% on Strong Q2 Earnings
Punjab National Bank shares gained 11% over two trading days after the state-owned lender reported higher quarterly profit and improved margins. The stock reached a 52-week high of ₹139 in Wednesday’s intraday trading, while trading volume more than doubled.
Punjab National Bank shares climbed after the lender reported stronger earnings for the quarter ended September 2026, taking the punjab national bank share price to a 52-week high in Wednesday’s trading.
The stock rose 5% to ₹139 on the BSE intraday, surpassing its previous high of ₹135.15, reached on January 19, 2026. Over the past two trading sessions, it gained 11%.
Trading was heavy. At 12:45 p.m., the shares were up 4% at ₹137.30, while the BSE Sensex gained 1.2%. Combined trading volume on the NSE and BSE reached 59.2 million shares, more than double the average.
Punjab National Bank reported profit after tax of ₹5,500 crore for the quarter, up 13% year over year. Its return on assets — a measure of how efficiently a bank uses its assets to generate profit — reached a record 1.09%.
Analysts at JM Financial Institutional Securities attributed the earnings performance to wider net interest margins, higher fee income and negligible credit costs. Net interest margin, the gap between what a bank earns on loans and pays for funding, expanded by 8 basis points from the previous quarter.
Fee income rose 24% year over year, while loan growth was 16%. The bank’s lending mix continued shifting toward retail, agriculture and micro, small and medium enterprises, JM Financial said.
Lower funding costs and a smaller share of low-yielding inter-bank participation certificates and corporate exposures supported the margin improvement, the analysts said. Punjab National Bank’s management expects margins to improve by a further 7 to 9 basis points in coming quarters, citing repricing of loans linked to the repo rate and stable funding costs.
Jefferies said the quarterly profit exceeded its estimate, with higher net interest income, treasury gains and lower provisions offsetting increased operating expenses. It also cited improving deposit and loan quality as positive factors for margins.
The bank’s gross non-performing loans stood at 2.6% of loans, with coverage of 90%. Credit costs were 0.3% of average loans. Punjab National Bank expects the move to expected credit loss provisioning to result in a one-time charge of ₹8,000 crore and recurring credit costs around 15 basis points of loans, Jefferies said.
JM Financial raised its earnings estimates for the bank’s FY27 and FY28 financial years by 17% and 19%, respectively, and revised its price target to ₹140 from ₹120. Jefferies also set a ₹140 target, up from ₹130. Those assessments reflect the brokerages’ views.
