State Bank of India reported a 134 per cent jump in its standalone net profit at ₹2,610 core in the third quarter ended December 31, 2016, as against ₹1,115 core in the year-ago period on the back of robust jump in non-interest income, tight leash on interest expenses, and lower provisioning for bad loans.
Net interest income nudged up 7.70 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to ₹14,752 crore. Non-interest income jumped 59 per cent to ₹9,662 crore. While the bank’s net interest margin was almost flat at 1.33 per cent in the reporting quarter.
While total deposits jumped by a healthy 22 per cent y-o-y to ₹20,40,778 crore, total advances nudged up only 5 per cent to ₹14,97,164 crore. Thanks to the copious deposit inflows during the demonetisation period, India’s largest bank received low-cost CASA (current account, savings account) deposits of ₹1,52,731 crore in the reporting quarter. Hence, CASA jumped to 46.55 per cent of total deposits as against 42.70 per cent in the year-ago quarter.
Underscoring the movement of better rated corporates towards the bond markets for raising funds, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said the bank’s outstanding investments in commercial papers and corporate bonds were up 36 per cent and 18 per cent to ₹45,056 crore and ₹48,542 crore, respectively.
Trend in advances During the reporting quarter, large corporate and mid-corporate advances declined by ₹4,107 crore and ₹1,278 crore, respectively. To a question on the impact of demonetisation, the SBI chief said the demand for home loans, which was ₹2,775 crore in October 2016, came down to about ₹2,100 crore in November and December.
Small and medium enterprise and agriculture loans too saw a de-growth of ₹4,223 crore and ₹3,581 crore, respectively, during the reporting quarter. Retail loans, however, increased by ₹11,754 crore.
SBI’s market share in domestic advances declined 4 basis points y-o-y to 16.21 per cent.
Gross non-performing assets (GNPA) rose to ₹1,08,172 crore as at December-end 2016 as against ₹72,792 crore as at December-end 2015.
In percentage terms, GNPAs increased to 7.23 per cent of gross advances as against 5.10 per cent.
Provisions towards bad loans during the reporting quarter were lower at ₹7,245 crore (₹7,645 crore). Fresh slippages came down to ₹10,185 crore (₹20,692 crore). About 73 per cent of the slippages were from the watch-list.
SBI Group reported a 71 per cent y-o-y increase in net profit at ₹2,152 crore. The Group net profit is lower than SBI’s standalone net profit as associate banks collectively posted higher net loss of ₹789 crore vis-a-vis net loss of ₹181 crore in the year-ago quarter. SBI shares closed at ₹276.25 apiece, up 0.15 per cent over the previous close on the BSE.