Mumbai, July 28: The State Bank of India today beat analyst expectations with a 78.55 per cent higher net profit for the first quarter ended June 30. Led by a robust growth in its loan book, the bank’s net profit soared to Rs 1,425.81 crore from Rs 798.57 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The growth in net profit was well ahead of analysts’ estimate of around 40 per cent. A lower base in the first quarter of 2006-07 also contributed to the sharp jump. During the first quarter of the previous fiscal, the SBI reported a 35 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 798.57 crore.

The bank displayed a modest growth in its core operations. The net interest income rose 15 per cent to Rs 4,497.40 crore from Rs 3,910.61 crore in the year-ago period. The bank’s total non-interest income rose to Rs 842.58 crore from Rs 709.59 crore and fee-based income increased 16.28 per cent to Rs 885.86 crore.

The gross non-performing asset ratio declined to 3.13 per cent from 3.64 per cent.

However, the bank made a higher provisioning of Rs 506.32 crore during the quarter compared with Rs 173.82 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The bank reported a 29 per cent growth in gross advances at Rs 34,4087 crore from Rs 26,6963 crore. The average yield on advances improved to 9.80 per cent for the quarter ended June 30 against 8.48 per cent in the year-ago period.

Interest income on advances went up by 46.25 per cent because of the volume growth in advances and improvement in yield.

Advances in the personal segment grew by Rs 12,171 crore and the advances in the outstanding personal segment was Rs 75,138 crore. In housing finance, the bank’s advances grew by Rs 6,048 crore or a little over 18 per cent and the total outstanding in home loans was Rs 39,241 crore.

Retail advances constitute 25.81 per cent of the bank’s gross domestic advances. Housing loans made up 52.22 per cent of its retail advances. With commercial banks offering higher interest rates on deposits, the bank’s cost of deposits rose to 5.35 per cent.

from 4.63 per cent. During the quarter, the bank’s deposits grew by 19 per cent crore to Rs 44,9660.