The Indian equity market once again closed in the green extending its winning streak to fourth straight session on Friday. The Nifty closed at highest level in 7 months registering its biggest weekly gain in nearly 3 months. Hopes of economic recovery, strength in rupee and prediction of above average monsoon lifted sentiments higher. Nifty closed with a gain of 87 points at 8,156 while Sensex ended with again of 287 points at 26,654.

On the global front, most of the Asian indices closed their day on a positive note. The Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended higher by 0.88%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended higher by 0.37%. The European indices also witnessed buying interest. The FTSE 100 is up 0.05%, France’s CAC 40 is up 0.06% and Germany’s DAX is up 0.9%. The rupee was trading at Rs 66.97 to the dollar at the time of writing.

SBI reported its results for the quarter ended March 2016. The net profits declined by 66% YoY to Rs 12.6 billion during the quarter. The decline was mainly because of higher provisioning on account of bad loans.

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) increased to 6.5%, higher than 5.1% as reported in the preceding quarter. As an absolute number the gross NPAs increased by 35% to Rs 981.7 billion on a sequential basis.

Further, provisions increased by 65% to Rs 131.7 billion on a sequential basis. The provisions increased as the company set aside more money to provide for the bad loans. Net interest income (NII), the difference between the interest earned on loans and that spend on deposits, increased by 4% YoY to Rs 152.9 billion during the quarter.

SBI’s earnings have been hit in the March 2016 quarter on account of the clean-up exercise undertaken in line with RBI’s Asset Quality Review (AQR).

While the fallout of the same has resulted in higher provisions that have curtailed earnings, but it will also enable banks to quickly tide over the NPA crisis. A check on the asset quality will be the key things to watch out for going forward.

One shall note that the bank is going to merge its five associate banks, along with Bharatiya Mahila Bank, with itself. The bank recently announced that its board has given in-principle approval for the bank to discuss the possibility of acquiring its associate banks.

The stock of SBI closed higher by 9.4%.

Tata Steel recently reported its results for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2016 (4QFY16). The company posted a year on year (YoY) decline of 12.4% in its consolidated revenues. Consolidated net loss of the company stood at Rs 33 billion as against Rs 57 billion in the corresponding quarter last year. Operating profits, however, remained strong. The company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) came in at 23 billion, up by 44% on a YoY basis.

For the overall business, the company recorded steel deliveries of 6.94 million tonne (MT) during the quarter, down 1.6%.

Stock of Tata Steel closed the trading day up by 1.7%.

USDINR trade today trading up 16 paise at 67.01 per US dollar.

Out of 1,440 stocks traded on the NSE, 566 declined and 817 advanced today.

Top 5 Nifty Gainers: Coal India (4.34%), Tata Motors (1.95%), TCS (1.20%), Dr Reddys Lab (0.88%) and Axis Bank. (0.86%).

Top 5 Nifty Losers: BHEL (-2.89%), Lupin Ltd (-1.26%), ITC Ltd (-1.11%), ICICI Bank (-1.07%) and HDFC (-0.79%)

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