Shares of YES Bank rose nearly 9% in opening trade on Monday after the private sector lender reported better-than-expected earnings in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2024. Extending gains for the third straight session, YES Bank shares opened at ₹27.52, up 5% against Friday’s closing price of ₹26.15 on the BSE. In the early trade, the banking stock gained as much as 9% to 28.50, while the market capitalization rose to 79,630 crore.
YES Bank shares have risen in six out of the last seven sessions and climbed nearly 19% during this period. The stock touched its 52-week high of ₹32.81 on February 9, 2024, and its 52-week low of ₹14.10 on October 23, 2023.
The large-cap stock has given a 74% return to its shareholders in the last year; 74.5% in six months; and 23% in the calendar year 2024. In the past one month, the stock added nearly 14%, while it gained 7% in a week.
For the fourth quarter ended March 2024, YES Bank reported a net profit of ₹452 crore, up 123.2% against ₹202 crore in the same period last year. Sequentially, the profit was up 95.2% from ₹231 crore in the December quarter of FY24.
The net interest income (NII) grew 2.3% to ₹2,153 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared to ₹2,105 crore in the corresponding period last year. On quarter-on-quarter, the NII rose 6.8% from ₹2,017 crore in Q3 FY24. The non-interest income was up 56.3% YoY and 31.3% QoQ at ₹1,569 crore during the quarter under review. The total income climbed to ₹3,722 crore in the March quarter of FY24, up 19.7% YoY and 15.9% QoQ.
On the asset quality front, the gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) improved to 1.7% from 2% in Q3 FY24 and 2.2% in Q4 FY23. In a similar trend, the net non-performing assets (NNPAs) also declined to 0.6% from 0.9% in the previous quarter and 0.8% in the same period last year. The provision cost (non-tax) was at ₹471 crore for Q4 FY24, down 23.8% YoY and 15.1% QoQ.
“This quarter demonstrates a significant step in the return on assets (ROA) expansion journey, with Q4 FY24 RoA expanding to 0.5%. This is despite the one-off gains from tax refunds, SR recoveries, and ARC Sale, being prudently utilized for strengthening the asset quality metrics- for instance, the NNPA + Net Carrying value of SRs have more than halved over the year to 1.1% from 2.4% in FY23,” says Prashant Kumar, Managing Director & CEO, YES Bank.
“We continue to witness strong momentum in our liability franchise with growth in deposits expanding to over 20% Y-o-Y for the first time in the last 8 quarters. Importantly, despite the challenging environment during the year, our CASA ratio has expanded 10 bps YoY to 30.9%,” he adds.
The balance sheet of the bank crossed 4 lakh crore during the March quarter, driven by deposit accretion (up 22.5% YoY and 10.1% Q-o-Q) and net advances growth (ex-reverse repo) at 13.8% YoY, aided by sustained growth momentum in SME and Mid corporate advances (at 25%+ YoY) and resumption of growth in the corporate segment, the bank says in its earnings report.
The article originally appeared on Fortune India.