State Bank of India, on February 5, reported a 62 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit to Rs 8,431.9 crore for the quarter ended December, which was above analysts’ expectations of Rs 7,957.4 crore.

The sharp rise in the bottomline of the lender was down to a 32.6 percent on-year decline in provisions to Rs 6,974 crore. Analysts expected the state-owned lender to report provisions of Rs 6,173 crore.

While over provisions declined on-year, loan-loss provisions in the quarter rose to Rs 3,096 crore from Rs 2,290 crore in the year-ago period. Overall, COVID-19 related provisions stood at Rs 6,183 crore, the lender said.

SBI‘s restructuring book under the COVID-19 resolution plan – 1.0 and 2.0 was at Rs 32,895 crore, or 1.2 percent of loan book, at the end of the quarter.

The state-owned lender’s net interest income for the reported quarter grew 6.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 30,687 crore, which was below Street’s estimate of Rs 31,115.3 crore. However, the net interest margin improved 6 basis points year-on-year to 3.4 percent, which was in line with expectations.

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