Union Bank of India (UBI) is the top loser on the BSE since opening bell today. The stock opened with a loss of almost 5.5% at Rs.75, going down further 8.5% to Rs.72.55. Its 52-week low stands at Rs.61.40.

UBI posted a net loss of Rs.3369 crore for Q4FY19 , which is much more than the loss of Rs.2583 crore posted in previous Q4.

This was mainly on account of the 27% (YoY) jump in operating expense at rs.2143 crore. The expense included Rs.60 crore on account of wage revision and a hit of Rs.140 crore because of th 25% discount given to employees on an employee share purchase scheme (ESPS) for 7.28 crore equity shares.

The loss was also on account of the Rs.2280 crore provisions made on account of bad loan divergences – this was on account of ageing of NPAs. On this, RBI has found gross non-performing asset (NPA) divergence for FY18 at Rs.867 crore and the ensuing provision divergence of Rs.2,281 crore.

The Bank hopes to recover Rs.3000 to 3500 crore from Alok Inds, Bhushan  Power & Steel and Essar Steel, which are under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

In terms of asset quality, Gross NPA improved from 15.66% to 14.98% and Net NPA to 6.85% from 8.27% (QoQ).