MUMBAI: State Bank of India’s Q2FY27 net profit rose 14.3% to Rs 23,038 crore, driven by a 14.7% increase in net interest income to Rs 49,143 crore and lower loan loss provisions. Net interest margin improved to 3.1% from just over 3% a year ago, while loan loss provisions fell 33% to Rs 2,759 crore as asset quality improved.However, the bank’s shares fell 1.8% to Rs 969 as investors were disappointed with the 7.3% growth in operating profit to Rs 34,226 crore. The increase was held back by a 24% decline in other income to Rs 11,777 crore.Addressing newspersons, SBI chairman CS Setty reiterated the bank’s guidance of 10-11% deposit growth and 14-15% credit growth. The bank has a corporate loan pipeline of Rs 7.8 lakh crore, he said.“If nominal GDP growth is around 12 to 12.5%, normally the SBI credit growth rate is 3 to 4% over that and that is where the guidance of 14 to 15% is coming from,” explained Setty.

The bank does not face any immediate compulsion to raise deposit rates, given its comfortable liquidity position. SBI had excess statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) holdings of more than Rs 4 lakh crore as of Sept 30, providing adequate headroom to fund credit growth, he said.