State Bank of India (SBI) will be declaring its fourth quarter (Q4) and 2016-17 results on Friday. While analysts and policymakers will be keenly watching out for net interest income (NII), net profit, capital adequacy, NPA ratio and so on, shareholders would be curious to know if the country's biggest bank rewards them with a bonus issue.
The lender has never issued bonus shares since going public. The stock split from Rs 10 face value to Re 1 in November 2014. On Thursday, SBI shares closed at Rs 302.95 apiece, down 1.53 percent from their previous close.
Stock markets LIVE updates: State Bank of India Q4 net profit rises 122%
As of December 31, 2016, SBI's share capital was Rs 776.28 crore, while reserves and surplus stood at Rs 1,82,299.60 crore, up from Rs 1,43,498.16 crore as of March 31, 2016.
In the past few weeks, three companies have announced bonus issues — Biocon (2:1), Wipro (1:1) and ICICI Bank (1:10).
Things are looking up for banks after a slew of weak quarters when higher provisioning for bad loans dented their profits.
Punjab National Bank reported net profit of Rs 261 crore for the March 2017 quarter as against loss of Rs 5,367 crore in the corresponding period last year.
ICICI Bank reported 189 percent increase in standalone net profit for the March 2017 quarter (Q4) to Rs 2,025 crore ($312 million) from Rs 702 crore ($108 million) in the corresponding period last year, helped by a drop in provisioning for bad loans and rise in net interest income.
Allahabad Bank, Kolkata-based public sector lender, posted net profit of Rs 111 crore for Q4 as against Rs 581 crore in the year-ago period, helped by treasury gains. Total income was up marginally at Rs 5,105 crore. Gross and net performing assets as a percentage of total advances stood at 13.09 percent and 8.92 percent, respectively.
On Thursday, the BSE Bankex ended 1.25 percent lower while the Sensex closed 224 points (0.73 percent) down at 30,434. Top losers were Tata Motors and Axis Bank while IT stocks Wipro, TCS and Infosys ended with gains after a series of losses in the past few sessions over layoff reports.
SBI Q3 results
SBI had posted upbeat results for the third quarter ended December 2016, with standalone net profit rising 134 percent to Rs. 2,610 crore. The sharp increase was on account of higher other income and interest on deposits with the RBI and other lenders.
Net interest income (NII) rose 7.69 percent to Rs. 14,751 crore in Q3 as against Rs. 13,697 crore in the year-ago period.The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) and net NPAs stood at 7.23 percent and 4.24 percent, respectively, as of December 31, 2016.
