State Bank of India (SBI), the largest public sector lender, today reported a rise of 3.33% in standalone net profit to Rs 33.49 billion for the quarter ended Jun. 30, 2014 as compared to Rs 32.41 billion in the same period last year. Analysts on average had predicted net profit to come at Rs 28.24 billion. Total income increased by 12.56% to Rs 407.39 billion for the quarter ended Jun. 30, 2014 as compared to Rs 361.93 billion in the same period last year.
Commenting on the SBI results, Saday Sinha, banking analyst, Kotak Securities, said, "NII (Rs.132.5 billion) came a shade above our expectations on the back of better than expected margin. Non-interest income was lower on back subdued trading gains (Q1FY14 was exceptional quarter), however, controlled opex (almost flat) and write back of Rs.5.5 billion of depreciation helped in mitigation the impact of higher NPA provisions (72% YoY). Reported headline NPA remained stable at 4.9%, despite higher slippage on back of higher cash recovery, up-gradation and write-offs. Nonetheless, fresh impairment remained lower at Rs.135 billion as against the run-rate of Rs.165.5 billion seen during previous 4 quarters. We retain our preference for SBI in PSU banking space."