MUMBAI (Reuters) - State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, on Friday posted a fourth straight consecutive drop in net income as an increase in bad loans clipped profitability.
SBI followed its state-run peers Punjab National Bank
SBI said on Friday that net profit fell more than a third to 22.34 billion rupees in the quarter ended December, lagging analysts' estimate of 25.3 billion rupees.
Non-performing loans as a percentage of total assets rose to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent in the preceding quarter.
Last month, India's top private sector lender ICICI Bank
SBI shares, valued by the market at about $17 billion, were trading down 1.3 percent at 1,485 rupees.
(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Miral Fahmy)