Mumbai, 2 December 2025 – Punjab National Bank (NSE: PNB, BSE: 532461) is trading near record highs as investors continue to favour public‑sector banks (PSBs). On 2 December 2025, PNB’s stock touched a fresh 52‑week high around ₹127.8 even as the broader market stayed under pressure. [1]
Below is a complete round‑up of today’s price action, the latest news, quarterly results, analyst forecasts and key risks for PNB stock, compiled from coverage up to 2 December 2025.
PNB share price today: near record high at around ₹127
As of about 1:00 pm IST on 2 December 2025, Punjab National Bank shares were quoted at ₹127.0 on the NSE, up roughly 1.4% versus the previous close. The stock has traded in a day range of ₹125.15–₹127.80, with volumes slightly above its 20‑day average. [2]
Key trading and valuation snapshots (2 December 2025): [3]
- Current price: ~₹127
- New 52‑week high: ~₹127.8
- 52‑week low: ~₹85.5
- Year‑to‑date gain (2025): ~22%
- 1‑year return: ~21–22%, versus ~6% for the Sensex over the same period
- Trailing P/E: ~8.4× (vs sector P/E ~9.1×)
- P/B: ~1.0–1.1×
- Dividend yield: ~2.3%
- Beta: ~1.38 (higher volatility than the market)
On the sector side, the Nifty PSU Bank index was up about 0.85% in morning trade on 2 December, even as the Nifty 50 fell around 0.4%. PNB gained roughly 1.6%, alongside other PSBs like Union Bank, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank, which also traded higher. [4]
Price momentum: fresh 52‑week high and technical strength
A same‑day technical note from MarketsMojo highlighted that PNB: [5]
- Hit a new 52‑week high of ₹127.8 on 2 December.
- Logged a 2‑day cumulative gain of ~2.3%.
- Outperformed the PSU bank sector on the day by about 0.7 percentage points.
- Is trading above its 5‑, 20‑, 50‑, 100‑ and 200‑day moving averages, signalling broad‑based positive momentum.
- Has delivered a 1‑year return of ~21.2%, significantly ahead of the Sensex’s ~6.3% over the same period.
Intraday live blogs from brokers such as Angel One show PNB oscillating mostly between ₹127.0 and ₹127.6 through the morning session, with multiple small swings but a generally firm undertone. [6]
From a short‑term trader’s lens, the stock is firmly in an up‑trend, but the climb to successive 52‑week highs also means a lot of good news is already embedded in the price.
Fresh news on 2 December 2025: CEO commentary and macro backdrop
“Economic growth will keep credit demand strong”
In an interview reported on 2 December, PNB’s Managing Director & CEO Ashok Chandra sounded optimistic on both the Indian economy and credit demand. He pointed to India’s 8.2% GDP growth in the July–September quarter and argued that GST rate cuts and reforms should support growth into subsequent quarters. [7]
Chandra highlighted robust trends in:
- Retail loans
- MSME credit
- Agriculture lending
- Vehicle and housing loans
According to him, these pockets are likely to remain the main growth engines for the bank’s loan book in coming quarters. The comments came as PNB also announced Indian women’s cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur as a brand ambassador, underlining the bank’s ongoing brand and retail push. [8]
Lending rates: MCLR and RLLR unchanged from 1 December
Regulatory updates summarised by financial media indicate that PNB has kept its Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rates (MCLR) and Repo‑Linked Lending Rate (RLLR) unchanged with effect from 1 December 2025. TS2 Tech
That means:
- No immediate change in EMIs for customers linked to these benchmarks.
- Management appears to be prioritising margin stability while awaiting clarity on the Reserve Bank of India’s rate‑cut trajectory.
Given that industry‑wide margins have been pressured by rising deposit costs through 2024–25, a stable rate stance suggests PNB sees its current pricing as reasonably balanced between growth and profitability.
Earnings snapshot: Q2 FY26 shows profit growth and cleaner books
For the quarter ended 30 September 2025 (Q2 FY26), Punjab National Bank reported one of its strongest quarterly profits in years: [9]
- Net profit: about ₹4,904 crore, up 14% year‑on‑year.
- Net interest income (NII): roughly ₹10,469 crore, marginally down (~0.5%) YoY as funding costs rose.
- Net interest margin (NIM): compressed by about 30 basis points YoY to ~2.6%.
- Provisions: net write‑backs in the quarter, aided by earlier heavy provisioning.
The real story is asset‑quality improvement:
- Gross NPA ratio improved to about 3.45% from ~4.48% a year earlier.
- Net NPA ratio fell to around 0.36%. [10]
The bank’s provision coverage ratio (PCR) is now close to 97% by some estimates, meaning a significant buffer is already built against legacy stressed assets. TS2 Tech
Management has repeatedly articulated a goal of pushing gross NPAs below 3% by FY26, which would be the cleanest balance sheet PNB has seen in over a decade. TS2 Tech
Q1 FY26: profit blip due to one‑off tax, not operations
The Q2 recovery followed a somewhat confusing Q1 FY26 print, which initially spooked the market: [11]
- Net profit: ₹1,675 crore, down 48.5% YoY and 63% QoQ.
- The drop was largely due to a one‑time tax charge of ~₹3,324 crore as PNB moved to the new tax regime.
- Total income: rose 15.7% YoY to about ₹37,232 crore.
- Gross NPA: improved to 3.78% (vs 4.98% a year earlier).
- Net NPA: fell to 0.38% (vs 0.6% a year earlier).
Brokerages like InCred and Motilal Oswal noted that core trends remained healthy, with strong non‑interest income and lower credit costs, and that tax‑related noise should fade from Q2 onwards. Motilal Oswal continues to model loan growth of 11–12% for FY26 and maintains a “Buy” view with long‑term RoA improvement as a key driver. [12]
Structural overhang: new RBI ECL rules and capital impact
A major medium‑term theme for PNB—and all Indian banks—is the Reserve Bank of India’s move to an Expected Credit Loss (ECL) framework, which will replace the traditional “incurred loss” provisioning model.
In an interview with Reuters, CEO Ashok Chandra estimated that: [13]
- The transition to ECL could mean additional provisions of about ₹9,000 crore (₹90 billion) for PNB by 2031.
- This would knock roughly 0.85 percentage points off the bank’s capital‑to‑risk‑weighted assets ratio (CRAR).
- PNB’s CRAR stood at about 17.19% as of 30 September 2025, broadly in line with the system average and leaving cushion to absorb the ECL impact through normal profits.
Management’s stance is that the ECL transition will be managed through internal accruals, rather than large equity dilution, but the framework still represents a multi‑year drag on reported earnings during the build‑up phase. [14]
Growth and strategy: loan mix, digital push and business targets
Beyond the headline numbers, PNB’s strategy over FY25–26 focuses on three main levers: loan growth, recoveries and technology. TS2 Tech+1
1. Loan book and sector focus
- Management is targeting 11–12% credit growth in FY26.
- Emphasis areas include project finance (infrastructure, renewables, smart metering, data centres), real estate, and retail segments such as housing and vehicle loans. [15]
2. Recoveries and NPA sales
- The bank plans to sell ₹4,000–5,000 crore of NPAs to asset reconstruction companies with expected recoveries of 40–50%, alongside direct recoveries from large accounts. TS2 Tech
- This complements the high PCR and supports the journey towards sub‑3% gross NPAs.
3. Digital and tech
- Roughly 20% of FY26 capex is earmarked for IT and digital, including cyber‑security and customer‑facing platforms.
- PNB is also planning a modest international expansion, such as reopening its Dubai office, signalling cautious re‑entry into select overseas markets. TS2 Tech
These initiatives aim to push return on equity (RoE) structurally higher while keeping asset quality under tighter control.
Forecasts: how fast can PNB grow?
Independent analytics platform Simply Wall St summarises the street’s medium‑term forecasts for PNB as of mid‑November 2025: [16]
- Earnings growth: ~8.4% per year expected over the next few years.
- Revenue growth: ~13.3% per year, faster than the broader Indian market (~10.9%), but slightly below the banking sector’s average earnings growth.
- EPS growth: ~8.6% per year.
- Forecast RoE (3‑year view): ~12.6%.
- Analyst coverage: around 59 analysts, with ~19 feeding detailed earnings and revenue estimates into the model.
In other words, the consensus is that PNB will likely grow solidly but not explosively—more a steady compounder than a high‑growth story, assuming the current credit cycle remains benign.
Analyst ratings and share‑price targets (as of December 2025)
There is no single view on PNB; opinions cluster around “fairly valued with moderate upside/downside.”
Aggregated global data
According to aggregated data cited by ts2.tech and underlying platforms: TS2 Tech+2Trendlyne.com+2
- Investing.com consensus
- Analysts: ~19
- Rating: Neutral
- Average 12‑month target: ~₹120.95
- Target range: ₹90–₹136
- TradingView consensus (last 3 months)
- Analysts: ~23
- Overall rating: “Buy” (several “strong buy”)
- Average 1‑year target: ~₹125.4
- Target range: ₹90–₹166
- Trendlyne (2 December 2025)
- Flags a “Consensus Share Price Target” around ₹121 versus an LTP near ₹127, implying low‑single‑digit downside and an overall “Hold” stance at current levels. [17]
Domestic snapshot (Mint and broker reports)
Livemint’s analyst snapshot for PNB notes that: [18]
- 17 analysts actively track the stock.
- Breakdown: 3 “strong buy”, 5 “buy”, 3 “sell”, with the rest effectively “hold/neutral”.
- Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) held about 5.67% of the stock as of 30 September 2025, up from the previous quarter.
- Mutual funds owned around 5.52%, also slightly higher sequentially.
Recent broker calls include:
- Motilal Oswal: “Buy”, with targets in the ₹130–135 zone, emphasising improving RoA and asset quality. [19]
- InCred Equities: “Add”, target ₹120, arguing that the stock remains attractive at ~0.75× FY27E book despite the recent rally. [20]
Overall, most domestic analysts still see PNB as investible, but a significant part of the easy valuation catch‑up appears to have already happened.
Valuation check: still a value PSU bank, but not “distressed cheap”
Versus its own recent history and against peers, PNB now sits in a middle zone: [21]
- P/E ~8–9× trailing, below many private banks but higher than in the post‑COVID clean‑up years.
- P/B ~1.0–1.1×, close to book value and above the deep‑discount levels seen when NPAs were much higher.
- Dividend yield of around 2–2.5%, supported by rising profitability.
- PEG ratio ~0.13 (on Mint’s numbers), which suggests earnings growth expectations are reasonably strong relative to price—assuming forecasts hold.
- Beta >1.3, meaning PNB is more volatile than the broader market and can move sharply on PSU‑bank headlines, rate expectations or merger chatter.
In short, PNB still looks like a value‑tilted PSU bank, but it is no longer the deep‑value turnaround it was a few years ago.
PSB mega‑merger chatter – sentiment driver, not base case (yet)
Several reports in late 2025 discussed a blueprint to consolidate India’s 12 public‑sector banks into four large entities, with PNB, SBI, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank as the likely surviving anchors. Potential benefits would include scale, operating leverage and stronger pricing power, while risks would revolve around integration, asset‑quality surprises and IT complexity. TS2 Tech
However, the government has also clarified in recent media interactions that there is currently no approved plan to merge PSBs, suggesting that any such blueprint is still at the concept or discussion stage rather than an imminent policy move. [22]
For PNB shareholders, that means merger talk is a sentiment driver and optionality factor, not a guaranteed part of the near‑term investment case.
Key risks to monitor
Even with improving fundamentals, investors in PNB need to watch a few big moving parts: [23]
- ECL transition:
Extra provisions of roughly ₹9,000 crore over several years will pressure reported profits unless offset by strong pre‑provision operating profit (PPOP) growth. - Interest‑rate cycle and margins:
Stiff competition for deposits and high‑yield alternatives can keep funding costs elevated, limiting NIM expansion despite steady lending rates. - PSB policy and merger execution risk:
Any formal merger involving PNB and weaker banks could bring short‑term capital, integration and asset‑quality headaches, even if strategically positive long term. - Macro sensitivity:
As a large PSU lender, PNB is deeply linked to government capex, infrastructure spending and SME health. A slowdown in these areas could hit loan growth and asset quality. - High beta and headline risk:
With beta above 1.3, risk sentiment swings—on politics, regulation or global conditions—can magnify moves in PNB’s share price.
Bottom line: how PNB stock looks heading into 2026
Going into 2026, Punjab National Bank occupies an interesting middle ground in the Indian banking universe:
- Fundamentals are the best in years – NPAs are down sharply, provisioning buffers are high and profitability has normalised around the ₹4,000–5,000 crore per quarter mark in good quarters. [24]
- Valuation is reasonable, not screaming cheap – the stock trades near 52‑week highs, roughly around consensus fair‑value estimates, with only modest upside or downside implied by most target prices. [25]
- The big swing factors are structural – ECL implementation, any PSU‑bank merger decisions and the trajectory of India’s investment cycle and credit demand.
For long‑term investors, PNB now looks less like a distressed turnaround and more like a large, systemically important PSU bank offering moderate growth, a decent yield and policy‑linked optionality, paired with above‑average volatility and regulatory risk.
References
1. www.marketsmojo.com, 2. www.livemint.com, 3. www.livemint.com, 4. www.business-standard.com, 5. www.marketsmojo.com, 6. www.angelone.in, 7. timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 8. timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 9. upstox.com, 10. upstox.com, 11. www.business-standard.com, 12. www.business-standard.com, 13. zerodha.com, 14. zerodha.com, 15. www.business-standard.com, 16. simplywall.st, 17. trendlyne.com, 18. www.livemint.com, 19. trendlyne.com, 20. www.business-standard.com, 21. www.livemint.com, 22. timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 23. zerodha.com, 24. upstox.com, 25. trendlyne.com
