New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) Country's largest lender SBI Friday said it has reported net profit of ₹ 838.40 crore in fourth quarter of 2018-19 fiscal on a standalone basis as non-performing assets (NPAs) came down.

The state-owned lender had witnessed a net loss of ₹ 7,718.17 crore during the corresponding January-March quarter of 2017-18.

Income (standalone) during the March quarter of 2018-19 rose by nearly 11 per cent to ₹ 75,670.50 crore as against ₹ 68,436.06 crore in the same period of the preceding fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

For the full year 2018-19, bank reported a consolidated net profit of ₹ 3,069.07 crore. While there was a loss of ₹ 4,187.41 crore in the entire 2017-18.

Income (consolidated) grew to ₹ 3.30 lakh crore for the fiscal year compared to ₹ 3.01 lakh crore in 2017-18.

State Bank of India (SBI) witnessed improvement in its asset quality as gross NPAs reduced to 7.53 per cent of gross advances at end March 2019, as against 10.91 per cent by end of March 2018.

Net NPAs or bad loans too trimmed down to 3.01 per cent as against 5.73 per cent.

Stock of SBI was trading 0.74 per cent down at ₹ 297.05 on BSE in afternoon trade.

Asset quality improvement leads to SBI returning to profitability after prior-year loss, with reduced bad loans. State Bank of India returned to standalone profitability in the March 2019 quarter with higher standalone income, and emphasised improved asset quality as gross NPAs and net NPA ratio fell; consolidated income and consolidated profit for the fiscal year also rose compared with the prior year.