New Delhi, May 16: State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) today reported a net profit of Rs 261.9 crore for the January-March quarter against a staggering loss of Rs 5,367.14 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The PNB stock rose 4.55 per cent to Rs 174.55 on the BSE today.

The public sector lender's asset quality also improved with both gross and net NPA falling. During the quarter, the bank reported gross NPAs of Rs 55,370 crore compared with 55,627.51 crore in the October-December quarter and Rs 55,818 crore in the year-ago period.

As a percentage of total loans, gross NPAs stood at 12.53 per cent of the gross advances at the end of the March quarter compared with 13.7 per cent in the previous quarter and 12.9 per cent in the year-ago period.

Net NPAs were 7.81 per cent compared with 9.09 per cent in the previous quarter and 8.61 per cent in the same quarter last year.

The bank's capital adequacy ratio rose to 11.66 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter compared with 11.22 per cent a year ago. This was reflected in the bank's successful tier-1 bond issue worth Rs 2,250 crore. PNB had also issued 164.37 million shares to the government last fiscal, raising the latter's shareholding by around 3 per cent to 65 per cent.

The net interest income jumped 33 per cent to Rs 3,684 crore from Rs 2,768 crore in the January-March period last year. Other income grew 68.2 per cent to Rs 3,102.8 crore from Rs 1,845 crore a year ago.