State Bank of India posts third-quarter loss

(Reuters) - State Bank of India, the nation's biggest lender by assets, reported a surprise loss of 24.16 billion rupees ($375.10 million) for the three months ended December.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 20.67 billion rupees, Thomson Reuters Eikon data showed.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 10.35 percent at end-December, compared with 9.83 percent in the previous quarter. http://bit.ly/2EsKGIp

($1 = 64.4100 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)