State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, beat street expectations as its net profit surged for the second consecutive quarter on strong loan growth, but a rise in bad loans pulled down its shares.
SBI's net profit more than doubled to Rs 3,752 crore from Rs 1,584 crore a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had expected a net profit of 36.17 billion rupees.
Its non-performing loans rose to nearly 5 percent at end-June compared with 3.5 percent a year earlier but provisions, or the funds set aside for bad loans and contingencies, were down 41 percent to 25.6 billion rupees.
