HDFC Bank, India's No. 3 lender, met forecasts with a 30 per cent rise in quarterly profit on Friday led by higher loan growth, better fee income and stable asset quality.
Mumbai-based HDFC Bank, which has posted profit growth of more than 30 per cent every year for the last decade, said its net profit rose to Rs 1,860 crore in the quarter ended December from about Rs 1,430 crore a year earlier. Net interest income grew 21.3 per cent to Rs 3,800 crore.
According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, analysts had expected a net profit of Rs 1,830 crore for the bank, which is also listed in New York and competes with bigger local rivals State Bank of India and ICICI Bank.
Asset quality, valued by the market at about $29 billion, was stable with net non-performing loans as a percentage of total assets at 0.2 per cent.
The bank's net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, is among the highest in the sector. It aims to keep it in a range of 3.9-4.2 per cent in the near term. The figure for fiscal third quarter was not immediately available.
Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2013
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