State Bank of India Q4 net soars at Rs 4,050 crore

State Bank of India, the country's biggest lender, has reported Rs 4,050 crore in net profit for the quarter ending March 31. The lender had reported a net profit of Rs 20.9 crore a year.

The higher than expected profits, however, came on account of a sharp rise in non-core income. SBI's other income rose to Rs 5,264 crore in the March quarter over Rs 4,815.49 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The bank's core income, or the net interest income, rose slightly lower than expected at Rs 11,704 crore against estimates of Rs 11,787 crore.

The biggest surprise was on the asset quality front. Gross non-performing assets, as a percentage of advances, declined 4.4 per cent in the fourth quarter against 4.61 per cent in the third quarter. SBI, which has given loans to some of India's most troubled borrowers including Kingfisher Airlines, said its net non-performing assets were at 1.82 per cent of total loans at end of March compared with 1.63 per cent a year earlier and 2.22 per cent at end-December.
 
It set aside Rs 2,837 crore for bad loans in the March quarter, nearly 13 per cent less than in the same period a year earlier, and compared with an 85 per cent jump in provisions in the December quarter.

"On the face of it, the numbers look good. However, I am surprised that on the NPA front there is no cause of alarm...because corporates are going for a lot of restructuring and SBI has exposure to a lot of corporates," Hemindra Hazari, head of research at Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities told NDTV Profit.

Loans grew Rs 8.7 lakh crore, up 14.5 per cent from a year earlier.

Shares of the company surged over 4 per cent in a weak market today.

The lender was downgraded by Moody's Investors Services in October because of its thin capital base and worsening asset quality.

(With inputs from Reuters)