SBI reports Rs 838 cr net profit in March quarter as bad loans decline to 3%; income rises 11% to Rs 75,670 cr

New Delhi: Country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday said it has reported net profit of Rs 838.40 crore in fourth quarter of 2018-19 fiscal on a standalone basis as non-performing assets (NPAs) came down. The state-owned lender had witnessed a net loss of Rs 7,718.17 crore during the corresponding January-March quarter of 2017-18. [caption id=“attachment_4203731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Income (standalone) during the March quarter of 2018-19 rose by nearly 11 percent to Rs 75,670.50 crore as against Rs 68,436.06 crore in the same period of the preceding fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing. For the full year 2018-19, bank reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,069.07 crore. While there was a loss of Rs 4,187.41 crore in the entire 2017-18. Income (consolidated) grew to Rs 3.30 lakh crore for the fiscal year compared to Rs 3.01 lakh crore in 2017-18. SBI witnessed improvement in its asset quality as gross NPAs reduced to 7.53 percent of gross advances at end March 2019, as against 10.91 percent by end of March 2018. Net NPAs or bad loans too trimmed down to 3.01 percent as against 5.73 percent. At 14.15 pm, SBI was trading at Rs 300.05 on the BSE, up 0.27% from its previous close, while India’s benchmark Sensex index rose 0.29% to 37666.49 points.