SBI reports net profit of Rs 838 crore for March 2019 quarter; trims bad loan ratio

Country's largest lender SBI Friday said it has reported net profit of Rs 838.40 crore in fourth quarter of 2018-19 fiscal on a standalone basis as non-performing assets (NPAs) came down. The state-owned lender had witnessed a net loss of Rs 7,718.17 crore during the corresponding January-March quarter of 2017-18. Income (standalone) during the March quarter of 2018-19 rose by nearly 11 per cent to Rs 75,670.50 crore as against Rs 68,436.06 crore in the same period of the preceding fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

For the full year 2018-19, bank reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,069.07 crore. While there was a loss of Rs 4,187.41 crore in the entire 2017-18. Income (consolidated) grew to Rs 3.30 lakh crore for the fiscal year compared to Rs 3.01 lakh crore in 2017-18. State Bank of India (SBI) witnessed improvement in its asset quality as gross NPAs reduced to 7.53 per cent of gross advances at end March 2019, as against 10.91 per cent by end of March 2018.

Net NPAs or bad loans too trimmed down to 3.01 per cent as against 5.73 per cent. Stock of SBI was trading 0.74 per cent down at Rs 297.05 on BSE in afternoon trade.