State Bank of India (SBI) shares gained nearly 4 per cent on Friday, ahead of the release of financial results by the country’s largest lender for the quarter ended March 31. The SBI stock touched an intraday high of Rs 180.90, up 3.93 per cent from its previous close, in early trades. At 10:15 am, SBI shares were trading 2.6 per cent higher at Rs 179 on the BSE. The country’s largest lender by assets, State Bank of India, had posted a 41 per cent net profit jump for the October-December period on the back of an improvement in the asset quality.

Its profit had risen 41 per cent to Rs 5,583.36 crore in the third quarter of financial year 2019-20. In a separate development, State Bank of India cut its interest rates on savings deposits by 5 basis points on May 31, 2020.

SBI’s board will meet on June 11 to consider raising funds in single or multiple tranches of up to $1.5 billion. The funds will be raised in 2020-21 through a public offer, a private placement of senior secured notes in US dollar or any other convertible currency, SBI said.

Read EquityPandit’s Nifty Outlook for the Week 

The BSE Sensex was quoting at 34,069, higher by 90 points or 0.2 per cent and NSE Nifty was at 10,080, up 52 points or 0.5 per cent at the time.