NEW DELHI: Shares of Punjab National Bank (PNB) were trading higher in Friday's session after the government of India increased stake in the bank by 5.83 per cent to take its shareholding to 71.92 per cent. Punjab National Bank on Thursday informed bourses that the government bought additional 63.82 crore shares in the bank.

With this, the government’s stake in the bank has increased to 71.92 per cent from 66.09 per cent earlier. The scrip was trading 1 per cent up at Rs 71.70 at around 10.10 am (IST), while the BSE Sensex was down 0.13 per cent at 35,193 at around the same time. Earlier this month, PNB reported a loss of Rs 4,532.35 crore for the quarter ended September 2018.

The state-owned bank had a registered a net profit of Rs 561 crore in the same quarter last year.

Its total income during the September quarter of 2018-19 declined to Rs 14,035.88 crore as against Rs 14,205.31 crore in the year-ago period, PNB said in a BSE filing. The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a proportion of gross advances rose sharply to 17.16 per cent (Rs 81,250.83 crore) at the end of September 2018, from 13.31 per cent (Rs 57,630.11 crore) a year ago.