SBI slippages down, profit triples in Q2; shares jump over 8%

State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday posted a fall in gross slippages and nearly six-fold jump in its consolidated net profit in the second quarter of FY20. The profit surged on the back of a one-time gain on sale of a partial stake in SBI Life, while asset quality also improved. The net consolidated profit jumped Rs 3,375.40 crore for the quarter under review, SBI said in a regulatory filing. Net Interest Income (NII) of the lender increased to Rs 24,600 crore in Q2FY20 from Rs 20,906 crore in Q2FY19, an increase of 17.67 per cent. The net profit was Rs 576.46 crore in the July-September quarter. Speaking on the occasion, the SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said that SBI’s focus has been to improve core pre-provision profit.

Shares of SBI zoomed over 8 per cent after the results. The scrip jumped 8.10 per cent to Rs 284 on the BSE. On the NSE, it gained 8.24 per cent to Rs 284.15. The shares ended the day up at Rs 282.35, 19.85, 7.56 per cent on NSE. With the NPAs falling to 7.19 per cent of the gross advances as on September 30, 2019 as against 9.95 per cent a year ago, the asset quality of the PSU bank improved. Its total income of the entire SBI group rose to Rs 89,347.91 crore in the quarter under review, compared to Rs 79,302.72 crore in the year-ago period, SBI also said.

The net NPAs or bad loans too declined to 2.79 per cent of the advances from 4.84 per cent in the year-ago period. On a standalone basis, the bank’s net profit alone rose nearly three-fold to Rs 3,011.73 crore as against Rs 944.87 crore. Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) significantly improved to 81.23 per cent as on September 30, 2019 from 70.74 per cent last year. Sequentially, PCR improved by 189 bps.