Mumbai, June 5: Government-owned State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday reported a four-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 3,581 crore during the quarter ended March.

This was supported by a one-time gain of Rs 2,731 crore from the stake sale in SBI Cards and Payment Services done during Q4 FY20. The country's largest lender by assets had posted a net profit of Rs 838 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal (Q4 FY19). SBI said its income from operations totalled Rs 76,028 crore in Q4 FY20 as against Rs 75,671 crore a year ago.

The interest earned stood at Rs 62,681 crore while interest expended was Rs 39,914, leaving a net interest income at Rs 22,767 crore during the January to March quarter.

SBI's asset quality improved as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of total loans came in at 6.15 per cent in Q4 FY20 as against 6.94 per cent in the quarter ended December 31 and 7.53 per cent in the quarter ended March 31 last year.

Net NPAs were at 2.23 per cent in Q4 FY 20 as compared to 2.65 per cent in Q3 FY20 and 3.01 per cent in Q4 FY19.

"The bank has made provisions aggregating Rs 938 crore against the accounts with the outstanding amount of Rs 6,250 crore, which are standard, but would have slipped to NPA/sub-category on March 31, 2020, had the RBI debt servicing relief as above not been reckoned," the bank said in respect of Covid-19 provisions.nAt 2:50 pm, the SBI stock was trading 4.2 per cent higher at Rs 181.35 per unit.