Business Standard

SBI to invest in high quality stocks only: Chaudhuri

"We have decided to do trading in high quality stocks only, preferably the Nifty stocks which have good volumes and less volatility," Chaudhuri said at a news conference here.

Press Trust of India Kolkata
Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will invest in high quality stocks only which have good trading volumes and less volatility, Chairman of the bank Pratip Chaudhuri said today.

"We have decided to do trading in high quality stocks only, preferably the Nifty stocks which have good volumes and less volatility," Chaudhuri said at a news conference here.

Earlier during the day, the bank announced its fourth quarter results for the quarter ended March 31, 2013, reporting a 18.54% decline in its net profit at Rs 3,299 crore.

Chaudhuri said during 2012-13 the bank earned a profit of Rs 600 crore from the trading account and the entire equity portfolio has been overhauled.

To improve the quality of assets, SBI will discourage below investment grade accounts, he added.

"Even if we take below investment grade accounts, then those will be backed by enough collateral security," he said.

During the last quarter of the last financial year, fresh slippages were to the tune of Rs 5,868 crore, which was equivalent to cash recovery and upgradation of assets.

The provision-coverage ratio had been increased to 66.58% during the last quarter of FY13 compared to 61.49% in the preceding quarter.

In the last quarter of FY13, there had been an increase in substandard and doubtful assets for which substantial provisioning had been made, Chaudhuri said.

Gross NPA of the bank in the last quarter stood at 4.75% while net NPA at 2.10%.

Chaudhuri said any decision on fresh capital raising would be taken during the second quarter of FY14. Tier I capital of the bank at the end of March 31, 2013, stood at 9.49% while tier II at 3.43%, he said.

Net interest margin (NIM) at the last quarter stood at 3.34%, a decline of 13.2%.

Owing to global liquidity issues, NIMs for foreign operations were under pressure and there was no scope for further improvement at the moment, he said, adding that the NIM guidance for the current fiscal was 3.6%.

He said restructuring of 21 accounts are in the pipeline and the major ones which have been restructured are Suzlon Energy and Sason Power.

Regarding its subsidiaries, both SBI Life and SBI Cards made good profits during the last fiscal, he added.

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: May 23 2013 | 7:39 PM IST

Explore News