SBI Q1 loss at Rs 4,876 cr on higher provisioning for NPAs

State-run State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday reported a major loss of Rs 4,876 crore for the first quarter ending June, caused by higher provisioning on account of its accumulated non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans.

In a stock exchange filing, the SBI said it had earned a net profit of Rs 2,005.5 crore in the same period of last fiscal.

The bank's total income during the April-June period, however, rose to Rs 65,492.67 crore as compared to Rs 62,911.08 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2017-18.

The country's largest lender's NPAs during the quarter in review rose to 10.69 per cent of its total advances, as compared to 9.97 per cent in the same period a year ago.

Gross NPAs increased to Rs 2,12,840 crore at end-June, from Rs 1,88,068 crore at the end of June last year.

However, SBI's net NPAs fell to Rs 99,236 crore at the end of the first quarter, as compared to Rs 1,07,560 crore in the same period a year ago.

Total provisions during the quarter more than doubled to Rs 19,228 crore, from Rs 8,929.5 crore in June 2017.

Sequentially, as compared to the previous quarter, however, total provisions fell 31.5 per cent from Rs 28,096 crore in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal.

Provisions towards bad loans during the first quarter rose 7.5 per cent over the last year's to Rs 13,038 crore, but jumped sequentially by 46 per cent.

The first quarter results mark the third straight quarterly loss posted by the SBI.

On a consolidated basis, the bank posted a net loss of Rs 4,230 crore against a profit of Rs 3,032 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal.

With results coming in during market hours, the SBI stock closed on Friday at Rs 304.45 a share, down Rs 12.00, or 3.79 per cent, from its previous close on the BSE.

--IANS

bc/nir