Bank of India shares down over 3% on weak earnings

MUMBAI: Shares of state-run Bank of India fell by over 3 per cent after the company reported a drop of 26.3 per cent in net profit for the quarter ended March 31.

The bank's stock ended 3.36 per cent lower at Rs 263.55 on the BSE. During the day, the stock tanked 5 per cent to Rs 259.05.

At the NSE, the scrip ended with a loss of 3.53 per cent at Rs 263.40.

Bank of India today reported a drop of 26.3 per cent in net profit at Rs 557.51 crore for the quarter ended March 31.

The bank's net profit in the corresponding period a year ago stood at Rs 756.57 crore.

"Profit after tax was below our estimate largely due to higher provisioning cost...The asset quality remains a concern area," wrote ICICIdirect.com Research in an earnings note.

The bank's total income, however, increased to Rs 11,274.09 crore during January-March quarter of FY'14 from Rs 9,265.55 crore in the same quarter FY'13, Bank of India said in a release.

For the entire fiscal ended March 2014, the net interest income improved to Rs 10,831 crore from Rs 9,024 crore in the year-ago period.