State Bank of Travancore is pretty strong in this falling market, holding very strongly in the green. Opening around Rs.40 higher at Rs.487, which was also its intra day high, the stock is now at Rs.466 levels, up over 4%. Volumes are massive – some 34,000 shares changing hands today morning alone compared to two-week average of 5884 shares.

The Bank announced its Q4 and FY15 numbers today morning and the market is thrilled. There was not only a major improvement in profitability but also improvement in asset quality. The Bank posted a four times (YoY) jump in net profit for the quarter at Rs.192 crore from Rs.48 crore. Net interest income (NII) though fell 5% at Rs.581 crore but this was more than made up by the 29% jump in other income at Rs.372 crore. It reduced its provision for bad loans by 23% (YoY) and down 37% (QoQ) at Rs.142 crore.

In terms of asset quality, Gross NPA fell by a very good 154 bps to 3.37%  from 4.91% and Net NPA fell 102 bps to 2.04% from 3.06% (QoQ). Capital adequacy ratio was at 10.89% v/s 10.10% in Q3.

The Bank ended FY15 with a 10% rise in net profit a Rs.335 crore.