Yesterday, private sector Bandhan Bank announced the opening of two new branches – one in Burdwan and another in Gurugram.

The Bank has said that it will open 6 more branches before the end of this fiscal which is just three days away. This means in the next two days, we will continue to hear the news of more new openings, maybe two per day.

The opening of new branches is always good news as it improves the reach but at the same time, initially for some months, the cost of the new branches remains higher than the income earned. That’s true for all banks.

So by end of FY19, in three days from now, Bandhan Bank will have a total branch tally of 986. It already has a network of 3,014 doorstep service centres, thus in that way, the total number of banking outlets will reach 4,000 by the end of this month.

The market is happy, not ecstatic. The stock price is up 1.25% at Rs.498.80. The stock has been gaining for the last 2 days and has risen 2.09% in the period. The stock has traded in a narrow range of Rs 2.80.