PSU bank stocks surge upto 8% on RBI's move on stressed assets

Mumbai: Shares of PSU banks on Tuesday gained up to 8 percent after the RBI came out with a scheme for resolution of bad loans of large projects wherein a portion of the debt will be converted into equity or other instruments.

The scrip of Punjab National Bank surged 7.90 percent and Bank of India gained 3.37 percent on the BSE.

Shares of Allahabad Bank went up by 2.98 percent, SBI rose by 2.65 percent, Canara Bank (2.39 percent), Indian Overseas Bank (2.13 percent) and Bank of Baroda (1.99 percent).

"The latest restructuring scheme is yet another attempt to provide additional tool to corporate lenders to address the continuing NPA problem," said Dhananjay Sinha, Head Institutional Research, Economist & Strategist, Emkay Global Financial Services.

RBI yesterday came out with a scheme for resolution of bad loans of large projects wherein a portion of the debt will be converted into equity or other instruments under supervision of IBA's Overseeing Committee.

The Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A) will cover those projects which have started commercial operations and have outstanding loan of over Rs 500 crore.

RBI said the S4A, an optional framework for resolution large stressed accounts, "envisages determination of the sustainable debt level for a stressed borrower, and bifurcation of the outstanding debt into sustainable debt and equity/quasi-equity instruments which are expected to provide upside to the lenders when the borrower turns around".

As per the resolution plan, the debt will be divided into two parts -- Part A will include debt which can be serviced from the existing operation while remaining will be classified as Part B.