PNB was not deterred by the overall weakness in morning trades on Thursday and was vindicated by buying support from institutions.

As a result, the scrip rose to a new all-time high of Rs 96.25.

By 11:10 IST, however, the scrip of the state-run bank slipped from that high and was at Rs 95.70, above yesterday's close by 1.70%. Over 1.38 million Punjab National Bank shares changed hands by that time. The scrip has risen by 22.6% to its all-time high of Rs 96.25 on Thursday from Rs 78.50 on 27 February 2003.

Dealers say the stock is the subject of accumulation by institutions on the basis of the company's good future growth prospects. As per market talk, Alliance Capital has been active on the counter over the last few sessions. As on 31 January 2003, the total holding of Alliance Capital in PNB was 1.44% or 38,28,699 share, on total market value of Rs 27.3 crore.

Analysts are optimistic over the growth prospects of public sector banks in general following the enactment of the Securitisation Act. Banks have already started serving notices to defaulters and in some cases have even seized assets.

PNB had come out with its initial public offer of 5.30 crore shares at Rs 31 per share on 21 March 2002. The issue was oversubscribed 4.4 times. ICICI Securities, DSP Merrill Lynch, SBI Capital and Kotak Mahindra Capital were lead managers to the issue.

Subsequently (in April 2002), PNB got listed on three exchanges - Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and the Delhi Stock Exchange.

Last month, PNB announced that it merged its operations with the Kerala-based Nedungadi Bank, thus paving the way for the New Delhi-based bank's expansion in the southern state.

The 108-year-old PNB is among the oldest professionally managed institutions in the Indian banking industry. It has one of the largest domestic branch networks (4,262 branches as on 31 December 2001) in the country, including 3,861 branches and 401 extension counters. Of these, 365 branches have been awarded the ISO 9002 certification. This vast domestic network of branches offers the bank a very low-cost deposit base.

PNB has been servicing its customers by offering a gamut of financial products in retail and corporate banking, industrial finance, agricultural finance, financing of trade and international banking.

The bank has appointed international consulting firm Boston Consulting Group to help it in restructuring of operations. It is implementing recommendations of BCG in the areas of organisational structuring, credit and treasury functions, realignment of branches, retail and office control functions.

PNB has widened its product portfolio by venturing into new business areas like gold dealing, insurance and credit cards. Its subsidiaries provide services relating to capital market, housing finance, asset management, government securities, etc.

PNB posted a 133% jump in Q3 (ended 31 December 2002) net profit to Rs 189.25 crore (Rs 1.89 billion) on a 25% growth in net interest income to Rs 733.60 crore (Rs 7.33 billion).

As on 31 December 2002, the government held 80% equity stake in PNB, while the public and domestic institutions held 10.6% and 7.33% respectively.