State Bank of India first-quarter profit falls 20 percent, bad loans rise sharply

REUTERS - State Bank of India, the nation's biggest lender by assets, posted a 20 percent fall in first-quarter profit as provisions for bad loans soared.

Net profit, not including contributions from subsidiaries, fell to 20.06 billion rupees ($312.84 million) in the quarter ended June 30, from 25.21 billion rupees a year earlier, the state-run lender said on Friday. (http://bit.ly/2uu1tGW)

Analysts on average had expected the Mumbai-based bank to report a net profit of 30.29 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans rose to 9.97 percent at end-June from 6.90 percent at March-end and 6.94 percent a year earlier.

 

($1 = 64.1225 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing)