YES Bank climbs 2% on Maharashtra govt deal

NEW DELHI: Shares of private sector lender YES Bank climbed 2 per cent in early trade on Wednesday after the bank partnered with Government of Maharashtra to onboard PDS shops onto the electronic PDS initiative through which they can become agents of the bank.

Under the partnership, YES Bank will empower more than 20,000 ration shops which can offer last mile basic banking services to more than seven lakh beneficiaries. The bank will cover almost 40 per cent of all the PDS shops across locations like Palghar, Thane, Kolhapur, Latur, Pune and others, an ET report suggested.

With Wednesday's gains, the stock broke its losing streak of last four consecutive sessions.

The scrip closed 2.81 per cent up at Rs 197.50 on BSE.

The bank is set to announce its December quarter numbers on Thursday. Brokerage Kotak Institutional Equities expects continued pressure on net interest margin (NIM) of the bank.

The loan growth of the bank may decelerate to nearly 30 per cent from nearly 60 per cent as the bank is in a stage of transition, the brokerage said.

The key monitorable would be the funding profile and progress in deposits mobilization.