PNB Housing Finance gains for 10th straight day; surges 41% from 52-wk low

Shares of PNB Housing Finance were up 5% at Rs 978 per share on the BSE in intra-day trade after the housing finance company said that it has obtained refinance sanction of Rs 35 billion from the National Housing Bank (NHB) in October-2018.

The company said the funds will be utilised for the specific sector wise disbursements/end uses as per norms of the respective NHB refinance schemes.

The stock was quoting higher for the 10th straight trading day, rallying 41% from its 52-week low of Rs 694 touched on October 26, 2018, on the BSE in the intra-day deals. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 5.5% during the same period.

On October 31, PNB Housing Finance, India’s fifth largest housing finance company, said it had successfully raised Rs 42.25 billion through Commercial Papers (CP) during the month of October. The CPs were placed with various mutual funds and banks.

“This will not only strengthen the liquidity of the Company but also help in boosting the economic growth. The NHB refinance are of a maturity of up to 15 years hence shall help further enhance our asset-liability management (ALM),” said Sanjaya Gupta, Managing Director, PNB Housing Finance.

“This is yet another long-term source of borrowings followed to ECB of USD 200 million we raised in the current, challenging environment, driven by our strong fundamentals. With availment of these funds the share of long term borrowings will increase in the overall borrowings and aid our constant endeavour to keep short term money at levels of 12% and below. We wish to again reiterate that as on date the Company is very well placed both on liquidity and ALM position and continue to be cautiously optimistic, he added.

Shares of most of the non-banking finance companies including housing finance companies were fallen more than 50% from their respective 52-week highs level on concerns of overall credit growth due to the liquidity crisis.

PNB Housing Finance had corrected 52% from its 52-week high level of Rs 1,444 touched on May 3, 2018, before it’s an over 40% gain in past 10 trading days.

At 11:55 AM; the stock was trading 3.2% higher at Rs 959, as compared to 0.03% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 307,253 equity shares changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE.

Punjab National Bank