Mumbai - Improvement in asset quality and high interest income pushed State Bank of India's net profit in December quarter by 30 percent to Rs 2,910 crore, boosting the shares of country's largest lender by 6.8 percent.

The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 2,234 crore in the October-December quarter of previous fiscal, SBI said in a statement.

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of total advances came down to 4.90 percent at the end of third quarter from 5.73 percent in the year-ago period while net NPAs stood at 2.80 percent.

During the quarter, the net interest income increased by 9.20 percent to Rs 13,777 crore as against Rs 12,616 crore in the October-December period of last fiscal.

However, the bank has increased its provisioning for bad loans to Rs 5,235 crore as against Rs 4,149 crore a year earlier, an increase of 26 percent.

Non-interest income too rose to Rs 5,238 crore at the end of December, up 24.27 percent over the year-ago period.

Total income increased to Rs 43,784 crore during the three month period, up from Rs 39,068 crore in the corresponding period of 2013-14 fiscal.

On a consolidated basis, the bank's net profit increased 35 percent to Rs 3,828 crore for the quarter ended December, against Rs 2,839 crore in the year-ago period. Total income increased to Rs 64,605 crore as against Rs 58,649 crore in the third quarter of 2013-14.

Shares of the lender rose 6.82 percent to Rs 303.80 during afternoon trade on the BSE.

SBI has five associate banks - State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad.

Among these, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore are listed entities.

SBI's gross NPAs in value terms declined 8.57 percent to Rs 61,991 crore during the December quarter.

Deposits of the bank increased from Rs 13.49 lakh crore in December 2013, to Rs 15.10 lakh crore in December 2014.

Gross advances were higher by 7 percent at Rs 12.65 lakh crore at the end of December.

For the April-December period, SBI Cards & Payment Services, another subsidiary of SBI, registered a 8.6 percent increase in net profit at Rs 252 crore, against Rs 232 crore in the year-ago period.

Net profit of SBI Life Insurance too rose 13.64 percent in the nine-month period to Rs 615 crore.

SBI Capital Markets, which is into investment banking, also posted a 39 percent jump in net profit at Rs 212 crore. PTI