State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender today posted a standalone net loss of Rs 7,718.17 crore in the fourth quarter (January-March) of the fiscal year 2017-18.
The loss may be attributed to mounting bad loans as gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans of the lender rose to 10.91 per cent from 10.35 per cent three months earlier, the bank said in a regulatory filing.
Worth noting is, the biggest Public Sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 2,814.82 crore in the corresponding period of 2016-17. Thereafter the loss widened from Rs 2,416.37 crore in the third quarter ended December 2017.
In absolute terms, SBI’s gross NPAs crossed Rs 2 lakh crore marks for the first time. As at the end of 31 March 2018, SBI’s gross NPAs stood at Rs 2,23,427.46 crore as compared to Rs 1,99,141.34 crore as at 31 December 2017 and Rs 1,12,342.99 crore as at the end of 31 March 2017.
Gross NPAs, as a percentage of gross loans, jumped to 10.91 per cent from 6.90 per cent at March-end 2017. Net NPAs rose to 5.73 per cent of the net advances compared to 3.71 per cent last year.
Bringing some reason to cheer to India’s largest bank by assets and third-largest by market capitalization, total income during the January-March quarter surged to Rs 68,436.06 crore, from Rs 57,720.07 crore in the same period a year earlier.
Meanwhile, country’s second-biggest lender, scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Tuesday posted its biggest ever quarterly loss of Rs 13,417 crore for the January-March period.
