SBI Surged Nearly 8% On Four-Fold Jump in March Quarter Net Profit

State Bank of India (SBI) shares surged by nearly 8 per cent after the country's largest lender reported a four-fold jump in net profit for the quarter ended March 31. SBI reported a net profit of Rs 3,580.81 crore for the quarter ended March 31, marking a jump of more than four times compared to its profit of Rs 838.40 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. The SBI shares ended the day at Rs 187.80, up 7.9 per cent, on the BSE, after touching an intra-day high of Rs 189.80.

"For the full year FY20, net profit stood at Rs 14,488 crore against net profit of Rs 862 crore in FY19. This is also the highest ever yearly net profit recorded by the bank," SBI said in a release.

The stake sale in SBI Cards and Payment Services and SBI Life Insurance Company helped the bank record its highest ever net profit in 2019-20.

The bank's asset quality improved as gross non-performing assets as a percentage of total loans came in at 6.15 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2019-20, as against 9.94 per cent in the quarter ended December 31, and 7.53 per cent in the quarter ended March 31, 2019.

In a separate development, State Bank of India cut its interest rates on savings deposits by 5 basis points on May 31, 2020.

SBI's board will meet on June 11 to consider raising funds in single or multiple tranches of up to $1.5 billion.

The funds will be raised in 2020-21 through a public offer, a private placement of senior secured notes in US dollar or any other convertible currency, SBI said.

The Sensex ended 306.54 points or 0.9 per cent higher at 34,287.24 and the Nifty 50 index advanced 113.05 points or 1.13 per cent to close at 10,142.15.