Shares of private sector lender RBL Bank plunged 15% to hit a record low in opening trade on Monday, in sync with the broader market which nosedived 2.7% in early deals. The overall market sentiment remained bearish, tracking a sharp sell-off in global equities as investors feared that higher-than-expected U.S. inflation could prompt harsh actions by the central banks ahead.
RBL Bank shares opened 10% lower at ₹102.05 as against the previous closing price of ₹113.35 on the BSE. In the first hour of trade so far, the banking stock declined as much as 15% to hit a 52-week low of ₹96.35, driven by a surge in selling activities. As many as 17.7 lakh shares worth ₹17.24 crore changed hands over the counter against the two-week average volume of 7.17 lakh stocks, while market capitalisation dropped to ₹5,665.4 crore. The stock hit a 52-week high of ₹226.45 on July 8, 2021.
In comparison, the BSE Sensex was trading 1,400 points, or 2.6%, lower at 52,900 levels, with all 30 shares flashing in red. Bajaj twins, ICICI Bank, Larsen and Toubro, and IndusInd Bank were among top five losers, falling over 3% each.
RBL Bank in an exchange filing on Saturday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had approved R Subramaniakumar’s appointment as the MD & CEO of the bank. Subramaniakumar is a former managing director and chief executive director of public sector lender Indian Overseas Bank, who retired on June 30, 2019. His banking career commenced with Punjab National Bank in 1980 and he headed business transformation at PNB for 3 years and transformed the business especially, digital, human resource, MSME, retail, overseas operations, etc. He was also an Administrator at crisis-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) and achieved its resolution.
In a separate development, the bank last week allotted 1,200 equity shares of the face value of ₹10 each to the eligible employees, on June 7, 2022, under the various ESOP Schemes of the bank.
For the January-March quarter of 2022 (FY22), the bank’s consolidated post tax net profit more than doubled to ₹164.77 crore, supported by a low base in the year-ago period. In FY22, the lender reported a loss of ₹74.74 crore whereas it had a net profit of ₹507.78 crore in 2020-21. The net interest income (NII) grew 25% year-on-year (YoY) to ₹1,131 crore in Q4FY22, while the net interest margin (NIM) widened to 5.04%.
On the asset quality front, the bank’s gross non-performing assets declined to 4.40% in the March quarter as against 4.84% at the end of the preceding December quarter. The gross slippages declined to ₹619 crore from the ₹766 crore in the quarter-ago period.
