Nifty Private Bank P/E at 16.7: cheap on book, not earnings

The reading

Nifty Private Bank closed at 27,093.75 on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.74. Its price-to-book ratio was 1.94 and its dividend yield 0.67%.

These are NSE's published end-of-day ratios, and the daily history is on the Nifty Private Bank valuation page. Our Nifty Bank P/B post covers the broader bank index, and PSU banks vs private banks compares the two groups over nine years.

Below the middle on P/E, near the floor on P/B

The comparisons start on 31 March 2021, when NSE moved its index P/Es to consolidated earnings. That leaves 1,363 sessions to 6 October. The yield series in our data starts on 29 June 2021, so its window is 1,303 sessions.

On P/E the index is at about the 30th percentile: the range runs from 33.65 on 1 April 2021 to 13.88 on 27 January 2025. On P/B it is close to the bottom. The low of the period, 1.90, came on 28 and 29 September 2026.

The nine sessions with a lower P/B were 23 and 30 March 2026 and seven between 24 September and 5 October 2026. Our series goes back to January 2016, and over that longer record only 18 of 2,654 sessions had a lower P/B. The other nine fell between March and May 2020, with the low of 1.79 on 23 March 2020.

Why the two ratios disagree

Dividing the index by its P/E and by its P/B gives a rough earnings and book figure per index unit. Dividing the P/B by the P/E gives the return those earnings represent on that book.

Over two years the index is up 2.4%, the earnings figure is down 1.9% and the book figure is up 30.3%. Book grew, profits did not, so each rupee of book now earns less. The implied return peaked at 18.46% on 30 July 2024; its median since 2021 is about 13.6%, and over the past year it has stayed between 10.9% and 12.1%.

That is why the P/B can sit near a five-year low while the P/E does not: the market pays roughly the same multiple of earnings, and earnings are a smaller share of book than before.

NSE's book figures change mostly once a year, as annual reports arrive. In 2024 the step came in September, when book per index unit rose 19.4% between 9 and 30 September; this year it came mainly in July.

Earnings recovered in 2026, the price did not

The earnings figure is up 13.5% since 31 December 2025, after falling 15.9% through 2025, while the index is down 5.7%. The two together took the P/E from 20.14 to 16.74. The Nifty 50 is down 12.8% over the same period.

The index set its record close, 29,187.95, on 18 February 2026 and is 7.2% below it. From the 30 March low it has gained 12.2%, against 2.0% for the Nifty 50.

Against the Nifty 50, the index is not unusually cheap. Its P/E is 0.86 times the Nifty 50's 19.49, a little above the median of 0.82 times since 2021; 803 of 1,363 sessions had a lower multiple.

The yield

The 0.67% dividend yield is above its 0.59% median, and only 118 of 1,303 sessions yielded more. It is still about half the Nifty 50's 1.21%.

What this does not tell you

The implied return is arithmetic, not a reported figure. It comes from two ratios rounded to two decimals, and it blends banks of very different sizes and quality into one number.

P/B says nothing about asset quality. A bank's book is only as good as its loans, and the published ratios do not show bad loans or provisions.

The ratios step when data updates. Earnings arrive quarterly and book mostly once a year, and the published numbers cannot separate company results from changes in the index's members.

This is an index, not a fund. Banking and financial services funds hold their own mix. Our fund returns post shows how they have done.

Where to go from here

The guide to reading an index P/E explains the measure, and the guide to banking and financial services funds covers the sector's funds. For the wider financials basket, see the Nifty Financial Services post, and for the market as a whole, the Nifty 50 P/E post for October.