The BSE PSU Index is one of the best performers today, going up 1.3%, led mainly by all banking stocks. Canara Bank leads the pack, followed by BoB, SBI, Indian Bank; the entire PSU bank stocks pack is in the green.

The turnaround in the mood comes on the back of Canara Bank’s good show for Q1FY19, announced yesterday. Apart from a 12% (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs.281 crore v/s a huge loss of Rs.4860 crore in Q4FY18. The main cheering news was the improvement in asset quality.

The Bank’s Gross NPA fell marginally from 11.84% to 11.05% and Net NPA fell from 7.48% to 6.91% (QoQ). During the quarter, the Bank made a cash recovery from bad loans, aggregating Rs.3537 crore.