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State Bank of India -- the country's largest lender -- is scheduled to report its financial results on Satuday, February 7. Analysts expect the PSU banking giant to stage a decent financial performance for the quarter ended December 31, with mild single-digit growth in headline numbers and some improvement in asset quality.

According to Zee Business research, SBI is estimated to register a net profit of Rs 17,760 crore for the October-December period, which translates to year-on-year growth of about 5.0 per cent. The analysts expect the PSU lender's net interest income (NII) -- a key measure of revenue for commercial banks -- to grow 8.0 per cent to Rs 44,800 crore.

NII is the difference between interest earned and interest paid.

State Bank of India's net interest margin (NIM) -- a key measure of profitability for financial institutions -- is estimated to be at 2.9-3 per cent for the December quarter.

Earlier, SBI had guided for a margin of 3 per cent and above for the remainder of FY26.

According to the research, SBI's quarterly provisions are estimated to come in at Rs 5,310 crore, as against Rs 910 crore a year ago and Rs 5,400 crore in the third quarter of FY25.

SBI is expected to stage improvement in its asset quality -- reflected in a sequential decrease in the proportion of bad assets in total loans.

According to Zee Business analysts, SBI's third-quarter gross and net non-performing assets (NPAs) -- or bad loans -- are pegged at 1.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent of total loans, unchanged from the previous quarter.

On Thursday, SBI shares ended half a per cent higher at Rs 1,073.4 apiece on BSE, outperforming declines of 0.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent in the Nifty50 and Nifty Bank gauges, respectively.

At this level, the SBI stock has risen 9.0 per cent so far this year, while the benchmark and banking gauges have declined 1.9 per cent and risen 0.6 per cent, respectively.

In the last one year, the stock has rewarded investors with a 40.1 per cent return. During this period, the Nifty50 and Nifty Bank indices have risen 8.21 per cent and 19.3 per cent, respectively.