SBI joins $100 billion market-cap club as business crosses ₹100 trillion mark

A better-than-expected performance in the September quarter propelled the State Bank of India (SBI) past the $100 billion market capitalisation milestone on Thursday. Robust credit growth, driven by strong retail spending during the festive season, enabled the country’s largest lender by assets to outperform Street estimates.The milestone coincides with SBI surpassing the ₹100 trillion total business mark, comprising advances of ₹44.20 lakh crore and deposits of ₹55.92 lakh crore as of September 2025.

In market-cap rankings, Reliance Industries leads with a valuation of $228 billion, followed by HDFC Bank at $170 billion. Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and ICICI Bank are the other corporates valued above $100 billion.

Notably, three of the six companies in this elite group are banks, underscoring the sector’s growing dominance in the world’s fourth-largest economy.Infosys, which had crossed the $100 billion market-cap milestone in September 2021, currently commands a valuation of around $70 billion. The decline reflects persistent weakness in IT stocks and the continued depreciation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar, both of which have weighed on sector valuations.

Meanwhile, SBI Chairman CS Setty observed that the consolidation of public sector banks has clearly benefited the industry. The number of PSBs has fallen from 26 to 12, leading to significant scale advantages.

“Scale is crucial, especially in the context of technology adoption. Without sufficient scale, investments in technology are difficult to justify, and achieving returns on such investments becomes challenging,” Setty told CNBC-TV18.He added that there could be further consolidation within the sector, although he did not specify a timeline.

For the quarter ended September 2025, SBI reported a 3% year-on-year increase in net interest income (NII) to ₹42,985 crore, above the CNBC-TV18 poll estimate of ₹40,766 crore.

The bank’s net profit for the quarter stood at ₹20,160 crore, up 10% year-on-year, also surpassing Street expectations of ₹17,048 crore. SBI’s results were further bolstered by a one-off gain of ₹4,593 crore from the sale of its stake in Yes Bank during the quarter.

Since the beginning of the year, SBI shares have rallied more than 20%, outperforming the Nifty50’s gain of under 9% and the Nifty Bank index’s 14% rise.

The sharp upmove has also stretched the stock’s valuation, with SBI now trading at 1.5 times its 12-month forward book value, compared with its five-year average of 1.4 times.

According to Bloomberg data, 41 of the 50 analysts tracking the stock maintain a “Buy” rating, eight recommend “Hold,” and only one suggests “Sell.