SBI drops over 3% despite recovery in markets after bank posts Rs 1,886 cr loss in third quarter

New Delhi: Shares of State Bank of India today slumped more than 3 percent in morning trade on the bourses after the company reported weak third quarter earnings. The SBI Group on February 9 reported a massive Rs 1,886.57 crore net loss for the December quarter of the current fiscal as its bad loans and provisions spiked. It had, in contrast, reported a net profit of Rs 2,152.14 crore for the October-December quarter of the last fiscal, 2016-17. Reacting to the numbers, shares of the company opened at Rs 288 and slumped 3.85 percent to touch an intra-day low of Rs 285 in morning trade on the BSE. Similar movement was seen on the NSE as well where the company opened at Rs 288.25, then fell to a low of Rs 285.15, registering a fall of 3.79 per cent over its previous closing price. The nation’s largest lender saw its net bad loans ratio spiking to 5.61 percent of advances, from 4.24 percent during the third quarter of 2017-18. The gross dud assets ratio jumped meanwhile from 7.23 percent to cross the double digits mark at 10.35 percent during the quarter under review. Stocks staged a strong comeback in early trade with the BSE Sensex gaining over 260 points and the Nifty recaputring the 10,500-level on continued buying by domestic funds ahead of inflation data to be released after market hours today. Asian markets were also trading in the green after a late-day rally on Wall Street on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_4342983” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Getty Image.[/caption] The 30-share Sensex recovered by 260.12 points, or 0.76 percent, to 34,265.88 in opening trade. The index had lost 407.40 points or 1.18 per cent to settle at one month low of 34,005.76 on Friday. All the sectoral indices led by metal, realty and infrastructure were trading in the green with gains up to 1.44 percent. The broad-based NSE Nifty went up by 81.65 points or 0.78 percent to 10,536.60. Major gainers were ONGC, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, L&T, Hero MotoCorp and Axis Bank. Larsen and Toubro rose by 1 percent after it announced a Rs 2,200 crore order win by its wholly-owned arm L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering from Abu Dhabi-based Al Dhafra Petroleum Operations Company Limited. SBI, however, dropped 2.85 percent following poor quarterly results. The PSU lender on Friday posted a net loss of Rs 1,886.57 crore after a massive under-reporting of dud assets in the past fiscal and reverses in treasury operations. Brokers said sustained buying by domestic institutional investors amid a firm trend at other Asian bourses improved the market sentiment. Domestic institutional investors bought shares worth a net Rs 588.42 crore while foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth a net Rs 1351.70 crore on Friday, provisional data showed. In the Asian region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.64 percent and by 0.39 percent in early trade. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.38 percent higher on Friday.