State Bank of India on Thursday reported a better-than-expected earnings performance for the January-March quarter. Standalone net profit at the country's largest lender jumped 83 per cent year-on-year to Rs 16,695 from Rs 9,114 crore in the year-ago quarter. This was the highest-ever-quarterly profit for the third consecutive quarter, according to chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara.
TV polls had estimated the lender to report a net profit of around Rs 15,000 crore.
SBI's net interest income (the difference between interest it earns on loans and interest it pays to depositors) surged 29.50 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter to Rs 40,393 crore from Rs 31,198 crore.
The bank's full-year net profit topped Rs 50,000 crore for the first time, with net profit in 2022-23 coming in at Rs 50,232 crore, up 58.58 per cent from a year ago.
The state-owned bank's earnings got a boost from continued strong credit growth as well as lower provisions during the March quarter.
SBI's total provisions in the quarter were down 25 per cent from a year ago to Rs 7,927 crore from Rs 10,603 crore. Loan loss provisions were down nearly 61 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,278 crore from Rs 3,262 crore.
Its credit growth stood at 15.99 per cent with domestic advances growing at 15.38 per cent. Retail personal loans accounted for 42.46 per cent of the bank's domestic advances, corporates 35.29 per cent, loans to small and medium enterprises were at 12.94 per cent and agri-loans accounted for 9.31 per cent.
While credit growth has been strong across the banking sector, deposit growth has continued to lag, despite rising interest rates. SBI, for instance, saw a 9.19 per cent year-on-year rise in total deposits, with domestic deposits growing 8.50 per cent.
Khara expects credit growth to continue in the current financial year, although there could be some moderation here and there.
The bank's asset quality also continues to improve. In the fourth quarter, its net NPA (non-performing assets) ratio stood at 0.67 per cent, versus 0.77 per cent in December and 1.02 per cent in March 2022.
Similarly, gross NPAs have declined to 2.78 per cent in March from 3.14 per cent in December and 3.97 per cent in March 2022.
SBI has declared a dividend of Rs 11.30 per share for 2022-23, considerably higher than the Rs 7.10 per cent it had announced in 2021-22.
Despite the strong results, SBI's shares closed 2.1 per cent lower at Rs 574.15 on the BSE. The broader BSE Sensex was down 0.2 per cent or 129 points at 61,431.74 level.