Jaitley rings a positive bell on PSBs ; to provide more funds if needed

Finance minister while talking to reporters, post a high-level meeting to review performance of banking sector, said that PSBs made operational profits of Rs. 1.40 lakh crore in 2015-16, and that losses reported by the PSBs where majorly due to provisioning norms. 

Finance Minister tried to convey that the situation is not as bad as it is perceived by several market participants on the PSB front. Finance Minister further stated that the Rs. 18,000 crores net losses by the PSBs were on account of provisioning and the majority of the provisioning has already  been made in the last two quarters of FY16.

Jaitley re-iterated the government's preparedness to pump in more funds if required to assist the ailing public banking sector. Government has already earmarked Rs. 25,000 crore to recapitalise the public sector banks. 

The PSBs like State Bank of India (SBI); Bank of Baroda (BoB); Punjab National Bank (PNB); and Union Bank of India (UBI) traded in green on Monday.  SBI shut shop at Rs. 198, up by 1.17 per cent or Rs. 2.30; BoB closed the trading session at Rs. 143.45 up by 2.32 per cent or Rs. 3.25. PNB and UBI were up by 1.12 per cent and 2.52 per cent respectively. 

Broader market's Sensex closed down by almost 0.07 per cent at 20206 levels on Monday.