SBI shares down nearly 3% post earnings; top loser on Sensex

Erasing all its early gains, shares of SBI today ended with a loss of nearly 3 per cent despite the company reporting 23 per cent jump in standalone net profit for the quarter ended March 2015.
Shares of SBI settled 2.38 per cent lower at Rs 282.45 on the BSE after rising 5.4 per cent to Rs 305 in intra-day trade. The stock was the biggest loser among the 30-Sensex components.
At the NSE, it lost 2.68 per cent to end at Rs 282.45.
Market experts said that profit-booking at higher levels pulled down the stock.
The company's market value fell by Rs 2,312.46 crore to Rs 2,13,707.54 crore.

On the volume front, 95.41 lakh shares of the company changed hands at the BSE and over 6 crore shares were traded at the NSE during the day.

SBI today reported 23 per cent jump in standalone net profit at Rs 3,742.02 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2015 on improvement in its asset quality.
The country's largest bank had made a net profit of Rs 3,040.74 crore during the same quarter a year ago.
"State Bank of India reported good set of numbers mainly on account of healthy growth in operating income," said Vaibhav Agrawal, VP Research - Banking, Angel Broking.

Total income of the bank also increased to Rs 48,616.41 crore in the last quarter of FY15, from Rs 42,443.27 crore in the same quarter a year ago, State Bank of India (SBI) said in a filing to the BSE.
The bank has recommended a dividend of 350 per cent or Rs 3.50 per share for the year ended March 2015.
During January-March quarter of 2014-15, the bank's asset quality improved as net non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans were trimmed to 2.12 per cent of net advances as against 2.57 per cent at the end of previous fiscal.
At the same time, gross NPAs also came down to 4.25 per cent of gross advances, from 4.95 per cent at the end of March 2014.

Meanwhile, in the stock market the BSE benchmark Sensex ended at 27,957.50, up 148.15 points.