The State Bank of India (SBI) is slated to announce its financial results on Friday for the quarter ended December 31. There are expectations that the lender may report profit in Q3FY19 against a loss of Rs 2,164.40 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Kotak Institutional Equities expects State Bank of India’s loan growth at around 14 per cent. It also projected that net interest margin may increase by 10 basis points sequentially to 2.8 per cent. Kotak also sees stronger non-interest income growth due to higher treasury income. The brokerage house projected a profit of Rs 4,139.10 crore in Q3FY19. “Slippages to decline to below 2.5 per cent as recognition is complete while gross non-performing loans could decline with further resolution in power and steel exposures and write-off. Provisions would be high due to ageing of NPLs,” Kotak Institutional Equities said in a report. Sharekhan sees a profit of Rs 1,727.20 crore for the State Bank of India on 21.90 per cent and 25.90 per cent year-on-year increase in net interest income and pre-provisioning profit, respectively. An assessment by Deutsche Bank showed that slippage ratio may decline to 1.71 per cent from 2.22 per cent on QoQ basis. The figure stood at 5.73 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year. The global financial services firm sees 35.10 per cent year-on-year rise in pre-provision profit in Q3FY19. Brokerage firm Emkay Global Financial Services said, “Growth is likely to remain healthy due to strong working capital demand and disintermediation from money markets. The bank did not defer MTM provisions; hence, we expect provision write back of about Rs 3,000-3,500 crore. We expect slippages to be marginally higher QoQ due to some slippage in term farm loan. On the corporate front, Jet Airways and IL&FS remain stressed for the bank. Bank expects Essar Steel, Bhushan Power and Prayagraj Power to be resolved in 4Q.”