State Bank of India edged up 1.9% to Rs 365 on BSE today, propelled by the general buoyancy in the banking sector and high expectations over its forthcoming results.

In fact, the scrip jumped 2.8% to an all-time high of Rs 368.30 earlier in the day. Strong volumes of 9.5 lakh shares characterised the State Bank of India (SBI) counter on BSE in a little over one-and-a-half hours of trading.

On Wednesday, a late rally saw the scrip jump 4.2% to Rs 358.15 . The counter is now being pushed up by expectations that the bank will report impressive Q4 and FY 2002-03 results . SBI on Wednesday announced that it would unveil its results on 19 June 2003.

Market men expect SBI to show a further fall in net non-performing assets.

The SBI stock has been in demand on the bourses for some time now. From Rs 233.80 on 14 November 2002, the stock has surged a whopping 56% in less than seven months to the current Rs 365. It also saw a marked increase in trading volumes of late.

The first major trigger for the stock came in the form of the Securitisation Act, which was enacted in November 2002. Among other major drivers for SBI and the banking sector in general are the low interest rate regime and improvement in the asset quality ie fall in net non-performing assets (with most PSU banks having written off non-performing assets against treasury income).

SBI is targeting a sharp reduction in net NPAs to 2% by March 2005 from the current 4.67%. The bank has approached consulting firms and specialists in a bid to recover sticky loans. The Securitisation Act has come as a big booster for the whole banking sector.

It aims at speeding up recovery of sticky assets without additional court procedures. It augurs well for the lending business as it will reduce incremental non-performing assets (NPAs) i.e. willful defaults by borrowers may come down drastically.

For the nine-month period ended 31 December 2002, net interest income recorded a 7% rise to Rs 7,210.20 crore. Other income, which includes income from non-fund based banking activities (plus fees/commissions, forex income and profit on sale of investments), grew 29% to Rs 3,533.86 crore. Net profit stood at Rs 2367.45 crore, up 30%.

SBI intends to integrate many of its functions with that of its seven subsidiaries, including treasury operations, ATMs and technology, in the near future. Even though the merger of the subsidiaries with the parent does not seem imminent, SBI plans to merge branches, which are closely located and redundant, soon. This is part of its plan to rationalise operations and reduce costs.

Apart from having a countrywide presence, SBI has its arms spread over the country through its seven associates -- State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Indore, State Bank of Saurashtra, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Travancore.

In the first phase, SBI will go for swapping of branches among the different subsidiaries. In the next phase, it will go for branch mergers.