New Delhi, July 26: Punjab National Bank today reported a 24.5 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 251.76 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal compared to Rs 202.15 crore in April-June 2002.
The bank's gross income increased to Rs 2,174 crore from Rs 2,059 crore while operating expenses moved up by 18.7 per cent to Rs 515 crore in June 2003.

PNB's loan advances were up by 14.9 per cent to Rs 40,648 crore while deposits grew by 13.4 per cent to 72,555 crore, its chairman S S Kohli said in a statement.
The bank's gross NPAs increased to Rs 5,178 crore, which includes Rs 516 of the erstwhile Nedungadi Bank that was merged with the bank last fiscal.
Net NPAs however declined to Rs 1,526 crore or 4.1 per cent of advances till June.
With impressive performance in the last few months, PNB improved its ranking to 395th from 499th amongst top 1,000 global banks, Kohli said. Bureau Report