Mumbai: India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday reported a net loss for the second consecutive quarter as bad loans continued to mount and provisions soared.
SBI reported a loss of Rs7,718.17 crore in March 2018 quarter, compared to a profit of Rs2,814.82 crore a year ago. The bank had posted a net loss of Rs2,416 crore for the fiscal third quarter.
According to a poll of 14 analysts by Bloomberg, the bank is expected to post a Rs1,728 crore loss for the March quarter.
Provisions and contingencies surged 139.32% to Rs28,096.07 crore in the quarter from Rs11,740.09 crore a year ago. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, they rose 48.8% from Rs18,876.21 crore.
The divergence in gross bad loans, the difference between Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) assessment and that reported by the lender, stood at around Rs23,239.13 crore, while divergence in provisions was at Rs5,720.66 crore.
SBI’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as assessed by RBI stood at Rs1.36 trillion as of March 2018, the bank said. It had reported gross NPAs of Rs1.12 trillion as on March 2017. However, the bank said the net impact of divergences has reflected in the current earnings.
Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) advanced 99% to Rs2.23 trillion at the end of the March quarter from Rs1.12 trillion in the same quarter last year.
As a percentage of total loans, gross NPAs stood at 10.91% as compared to 10.35% in the previous quarter and 6.9% in the year-ago quarter. Net NPAs were at 5.73% in the March quarter compared to 5.61% in the previous quarter and 3.71% in the same quarter last year.
Net interest income (NII), or the core income a bank earns by giving loans, increased 10.5% to Rs19,974.28 crore versus Rs18,070.72 crore last year. Other income stood at Rs12,494.78 crore, up 21% from Rs10,327.50 crore a year ago.
Advances for the quarter rose 23.16% from a year ago to Rs19.35 trillion, while deposits grew 32.36% to Rs27.06 trillion.
At 2.15pm, SBI shares were trading at Rs256.45 on BSE, up 5% from previous close while India’s benchmark Sensex Index rose 0.16% to 34671.32 points.