Indian banks dominate SNL Financial's top-performing bank stocks in 2014

Bangladesh dominated the worst-performing list, meanwhile.

Of the 15 top-performing bank stocks in 2014, 11 are from India, with Chinese banks making up the remaining four entries.

According to a release from SNL Financial, meanwhile, Bangladesh bank stocks dominated the worst-performing list, with six slots.

In looking at the total returns of banks covered by SNL Financial in the Asia-Pacific region for 2014, 11 of the top 12 bank stocks are from India. The banks were limited to public banks with a market cap of at least US$100 million.

Mumbai-based DCB Bank Ltd. tops the list with a total return of 123.43% in 2014. The bank more than doubled its lending portfolio to 87.93 billion Indian rupees during the four years ended Sept. 30, 2014.

The bank intends to focus on retail business and said in February 2014 that it aimed to open 300 more branches in two to three years. The bank currently operates more than 120 branches in the country.

Jaipur, India-based State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur and Mumbai-based YES BANK Ltd. are the other two banks with triple-digit total returns of 115.58% and 111.86%, respectively. Interestingly, YES BANK was one of the laggards in 2013. India's largest bank, State Bank of India, also registered on the list, returning 79.25% in 2014.

With a total return of 91.63%, China's Bank of Nanjing Co. Ltd. is the best-performing Chinese bank stock, while Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. Ltd. is the largest bank on the list with a market cap of US$37.71 billion.

Here's more from SNL Financial:

In terms of valuation, Chennai, India-based Indian Bank and Mumbai-based Union Bank of India are the cheapest stocks with price-to-tangible book value of 69.8% and 79.0%, respectively.

Conversely, Mumbai-based IndusInd Bank Ltd. is the most expensive stock, which is currently trading at 4.27x its tangible book value. The bank recently expressed its plan to enter the asset reconstruction business.

Out of the 15 bank stocks with the most negative total returns, six were from Bangladesh. There were also two banks each from the Philippines, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia, and one from Indonesia. Philippine Bank of Communications was the worst-performing SNL-covered banking stock in the region with a negative total return of 56.16%.

The bank emerged from a government bailout in March 2014, which resulted in lower profits in the first half. However, since then it has been working on expansion plans as it bought two rural banks. It is also rumored to be in queue to acquire the government's stake in Makati City, Philippines-based United Coconut Planters Bank.

The largest bank on the list of worst-performing banks was Malaysia's CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. with a market cap of US$13.38 billion, followed by South Korea's Hana Financial Group Inc. at US$8.45 billion. Both stocks returned negative 24.91% and 26.25%, respectively, in 2014.

The majority of the banks on the list are currently priced below their tangible book value. Hong Kong-based Hongkong Chinese Ltd. and Jakarta-based PT Bank MNC Internasional Tbk are the most inexpensive stocks and are currently trading at a multiple of 0.28x and 0.41x their tangible book value, respectively.