By Nishit Navin and Ashwin Manikandan
Aug 7 (Reuters) – State Bank of India posted a larger-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday, helped by healthy loan growth, pushing shares as high as 3.6%.
Credit growth has been robust in Asia’s third-largest economy as firms borrow due to rising working capital needs and households make a beeline for consumption and gold-backed loans.
The state-run SBI posted a 10.2% rise in net profit to 211.21 billion rupees ($2.22 billion), above analysts’ estimates of 191.02 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.
Its gross loan book grew 18.63% year-on-year, while deposits grew 9.73%. Loan growth at SBI, the country’s largest lender, is closely watched as an indicator of broader economic trends.
Across the sector, analysts and investors have also been closely watching bank margins as strong loan growth has coincided with intense competition for deposits at a time when deposit growth has lagged growth in loans.
SBI’s domestic net interest margin expanded 7 basis points to 3% from three months ago. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned on loans and paid on deposits, grew nearly 15% year-on-year to 469.92 billion rupees for the quarter ended June 30.
Top lenders such as HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank reported sequential margin declines in the first quarter.
SBI’s gross non-performing assets improved to 1.47% of total loans from 1.49% three months earlier and 1.83% a year earlier.
Slippages, or loans that turned bad, stood at 70.46 billion rupees in the June quarter, compared to 55.21 billion rupees the previous quarter and 79.45 billion rupees a year earlier.
SBI’s shares trimmed some gains to close 1.1% higher.
SUBSIDISED FOREIGN CURRENCY DEPOSITS FROM NON-RESIDENT
SBI said it has mobilised $6 billion in subsidised foreign currency deposits till now, helped by the Reserve Bank of India’s concessional swap facility, and is on track to raise $10 billion.
The RBI introduced the swap facility in June to encourage foreign currency inflows, and banks have raised $36.73 billion through FCNR(B) deposits as of July 31, according to data from the RBI.
($1 = 95.2725 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nishit Navin in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Janane Venkatraman)
