India’s largest public lender, State Bank of India, saw its shares plunge sharply after posting its earnings for the March quarter on Thursday.

What Happened: The bank’s net interest income – the difference between the income a bank makes from its lending activities and the interest it pays to depositors – stood at ₹40,392.5 crore, higher than street estimates of around ₹38,500-₹39,000 crore.

The lender’s net profits for the period stood at ₹16,694.51 crore, beating consensus estimates and up over 83% from the ₹9,113.53 crore profit it booked in the March quarter of 2023. The bank’s gross non-performing assets stood at ₹90,927.8 crore. The bank also declared a ₹11.30/share dividend for the year ended March.

Reacting to the results, domestic brokerage firm ICICI Direct told Benzinga India that SBI “continued its streak of stellar earnings with PAT beating all estimates.” ICICI Direct analysts noted that consistency in higher growth and return ratios augur well for stock performance.

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However, the strong numbers seem to have not cheered investors as the stock plunged over 1% shortly after the results were announced. Prior to the results, shares of SBI were trading higher on Thursday. It is not immediately clear as to what’s behind the slump, but analysts believe profit booking can be a reason.

Price Action: SBI shares were down 1.06% to trade at ₹580.10 in the late hours of trading on Thursday.

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