At 11, Aug. 25 -- For the first time in eight sessions, the State Bank of India is not falling. It went lower first. The stock traded down to Rs.1,031.30 on Tuesday morning, eighty paise below Monday's low, and then came back.

49 IST it was quoted at Rs.1,039.80 on the National Stock Exchange, thirty paise above Monday's close of Rs.1,039.50, and at Rs.1,039.05 on the BSE. It opened at Rs.1,036.00, has ranged between Rs.1,031.30 and Rs.1,043.20, and has turned over 47.52 lakh shares, which is 46.6 percent of what it trades in an average full day. These are live intraday figures from a session that runs to 15:30, and none of them is a closing price.

What makes the pause worth noting is what preceded it. SBI reported the largest quarterly...