Shares of Canara Bank fell more than 3% to Rs 222 per share on the BSE on Monday afternoon after the bank reported earnings for the first quarter ended June 2022, with the bank’s standalone net profit rising more than 71%.

Canara Bank’s net profit for the first quarter of FY23 rose nearly 71.7% to Rs 2,022 crore, compared to Rs 1,177.5 crore a year earlier. Its net interest income (NII) stood at Rs 6,784 crore, a difference between income and expenses of more than 10 per cent, compared to Rs 6,146 crore in the same period last year.

Its asset quality of gross non-performing assets (NPA) improved to 6.98% from 7.51% in the previous quarter of March 2022 and to 8.50% year-on-year (YoY). At the same time, its net non-performing assets decreased from 2.65% to 2.48% and 3.46% year-on-year.

Provisions for Canara Bank decreased to Rs 3,690 crore compared to Rs 3,708 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal but increased from Rs 3,458 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, the bank’s net interest margin (NIM) stood at 2.78% in Q1FY23, compared to 2.82% in Q4FY22 and 2.71% in Q1FY22. Meanwhile, new slippage decreased by Rs 3,606 crore from Rs 3,619 crore month-on-month and Rs 4,253 crore annually.

The bank said in its earnings report: “The global pandemic COVID-19 has impacted the world economy and is recovering from it. However, the pandemic has not significantly affected the bank’s performance, operations and asset quality. Any new wave of COVID-19 will have an impact on the bank’s performance impact. The impact will depend on its future growth and actions taken to prevent its spread or reduce its severity”.