SBI Q4 net profit zooms to Rs4,050 crore

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, has reported a net profit of Rs4,050 crore for fiscal fourth quarter ended 31 March 2012, against a meager Rs21 crore in the comparable quarter of the previous financial year.

Analysts had expected SBI to report a net profit at Rs3,580 crore during the January-March 2012 quarter.

The wide difference in quarterly profit is due to a 99 per cent drop in the bank's net profit during the year-ago quarter on account of higher provisioning for bad loans as also for pension and gratuity payments.

On a sequential basis also SBI's net profit during the fourth quarter of 2011-12 was up 24 per cent from Rs3,263 crore during the third quarter ended 31 December 2011.

SBI also emerged stronger with better assets than in the previous year period, aided by higher interest income and lower provisioning for non-performing loans.

Net interest income (NII) or the difference between interest earned and paid out, was up over 45 per cent year-on-year at Rs11,704 crore while other income rose 9 per cent to Rs5,264 crore.