SBI: Market leader misses estimates but delivers the goods on asset quality

At Rs 838 cr, its Q4 net is a huge miss, though better than last year's loss. Yet, as SBI made full provisioning for Bhushan Power, Essar Power and Alok Industries, it cheered the Street

It isn't often that a bank of State Bank of India’s (SBI) size, despite missing estimates by a huge margin, gets rewarded by the Street. Positive commentary from SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar, and more importantly, the bank having more or less started FY20 on a clean slate, with large accounts being fully provided for in the March quarter (Q4), helped the stock close the week with three per cent gains. 

Analysts polled on Bloomberg expected SBI to post net profit of Rs 4,840 crore, taking cue from a strong Q3. At Rs 838 crore, Q4’s net profit is a huge