UCO Bank on Friday reported a standalone net profit of Rs 16.78 crore for the March quarter due to substantial rise in other income and decrease in provisions. The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 1552.02 crore for the same period a year ago. In the December quarter, the bank had reported a loss of Rs 960.17 crore. Other income more than doubled to Rs 768.78 crore for the quarter ended 31 March against Rs 366.71 crore for the same quarter last year. The bank made a provisioning of Rs 1199.82 crore for bad loans during the quarter under review. This was down 46.50 per cent from Rs 2442.58 crore parked aside for the year-ago period.

Total income during the quarter under review was at Rs 4511.21 crore as against Rs 4148.52 crore in the year-ago same period, UCO Bank said in a regulatory filing. Net interest income was at Rs 1254.51 crore, down 2.90 per cent from Rs 1291.96 crore earlier.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank stood at 16.77 per cent of gross advances as at March-end, down from 25 per cent by the year-ago same period. Net NPAs or bad loans were at 5.45 per cent, down from 9.72 per cent by March 2019. Deposits fell 2.38 per cent to Rs 1.93 trillion for year ended March against Rs 1.98 trillion last year. Advances grew 1.87 per cent to Rs 1.01 trillion as on 31 March 2020 over Rs 99314 crore for the same period last year.

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Shares of UCO Bank were trading at Rs 16.41 on the BSE, up 17.47 per cent, while the benchmark index, Sensex gained 0.59 per cent to 35046.74 points.