IDFC First Bank stock dips 6% as Q4 profit falls 10%: Key highlights

Shares of IDFC First Bank Ltd dropped nearly 6% in trade on Monday, April 29, after the private lender reported a 10% year-on-year decline in its net profit for the quarter ended March 2024 (Q4FY24).

The IDFC First Bank stock fell as much as 5.7% to hit an intraday low of ₹80 apiece on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) on Monday. However, the stock recovered early losses slightly to close at ₹81.50 apiece, down 3.89% on NSE.

On Saturday, IDFC First Bank said that its net profit for Q4FY24 stood at ₹724 crore, down 9.8% compared to ₹803 crore in Q4FY23.

The fall in profit came even as net interest income (NII) grew 24% to ₹4,469 crore in Q4FY24 compared to ₹3,597 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The bank said that its operating expenses grew 29% year-on-year to ₹4,447 crore in the March quarter from ₹3,436 crore a year ago.

Provisions of the bank also increased 50% in the March quarter to ₹722 crore from ₹482 crore in Q4 FY23.

Asset quality remained stable, with gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio improving to 1.88% as of March 2024 compared with 2.51% as of March 2023. Sequentially, it improved 16 basis points.

Net NPA improved 26 bps from 0.86% as of March 2023 to 0.6% as of March 2024, and improved 8 bps on quarter-on-quarter basis.

For the full year 2023-24, IDFC First Bank’s net profit grew 21% to ₹2,957 crore in FY24 from ₹2,437 crore in FY23. NII for FY24 grew 30% to ₹16,451 crore from ₹12,635 crore in FY23.

Talking of the earnings highlights, IDFC FIRST Bank’s managing director and CEO V Vaidyanathan said, “The asset quality continues to be maintained at all-time best of GNPA and NNPA of 1.88% and 0.60%, respectively, the lowest NPA in our history. All legacy infrastructure loans are fully factored into the above. Excluding infrastructure loans, the GNPA and NNPA is only 1.55% and 0.42%, respectively. All asset quality parameters are stable.”