State Bank shares skyrocketed gained 10 per cent to touch a life-time high in early trading after the country’s largest lender on Thursday reported an improvement in addest quality in the December quarter. At 9:41, the shares of SBI were locked at the upper circuit of 10 per cent at Rs 391.
SBI said that its net profit in quarter ended December 2020 fell 7 per cent annually to Rs 5,196 crore from Rs 5,583 crore during the same quarter last year. SBI’s profit was hurt by higher provisions and a dip in income from its corporate banking operations.
However, SBI’s asset quality saw an improvement as its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of total advances came in at 4.77 per cent compared with 5.28 per cent. Total gross NPAs came in at Rs 1,17,244 crore.
SBI’s net interest income or the difference between interest earned and interest expended rose nearly 4 per cent to Rs 28,820 crore from Rs 27,779 crore in the year-ago period.
The BSE Sensex was trading at 51,025, higher by 414.35 points or 0.87 per cent and the NSE Nifty was at 15,005, up 108.90 points or 0.75 per cvent at the time.