State Bank of India July-Sept Net Profit Falls 38%

State Bank of India, the country's biggest lender, reported a 38% decline in net profit in the July-September period, as it set aside higher amount for bad loans.

The state-run lender posted a net profit of INR15.82 billion ($242.8 million) in the quarter, compared with INR25.38 billion a year earlier. That was below the INR26.96 billion estimated by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

It set aside INR167.15 billion for bad loans during the period, more than double from a year earlier.

Indian banks have been facing large nonperforming assets from sectors such as steel, infrastructure, energy for the past few years.

State Bank of India's gross nonperforming assets rose to 9.83% of total loans from 7.14% a year earlier. However, it was slightly down from 9.97% in the preceding quarter.

Write to Debiprasad Nayak at debiprasad.nayak@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 10, 2017 03:05 ET (08:05 GMT)