SBI Q4 net profit up 23 percent, bad loan ratio down

MUMBAI (Reuters) - State Bank of India, the nation's top lender by assets, reported a better-than-expected 23 percent increase in quarterly profit and a lower bad loan ratio, sending its shares more than 5 percent higher.

SBI, which accounts for about a quarter of Indian loans and deposits, said net profit rose to 37.42 billion rupees ($589.11 million) for its fiscal fourth quarter to March 31 from 30.41 billion rupees a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 37.23 billion rupees, according Thomson Reuters data.

Gross bad loans ratio stood at 4.25 percent in the March quarter, compared with 4.9 percent in the December quarter.

 

($1 = 63.5200 rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)