Private sector lender ICICI Bank has posted 12% increase in June quarter profits and said its bad loan ratio has improved.
The first quarter profits at India's second largest bank in terms of market capitalisation stood at Rs 2,976 crore, compared with Rs 2,655 crore in the same period a year ago.
Following the upbeat quarterly results, shares of ICICI Bank surged nearly 5% to trade at Rs 305 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
"Q1 numbers of ICICI Bank looks good on all counts. The net interest margin is likely to sustain at 3.5-3.6 per cent over the course of the year," Mayuresh Joshi of Angel Broking, told NDTV Profit.
Total income of the bank increased to Rs 15,802.45 crore in the first quarter of 2015-16 compared with Rs 14,616.71 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of total loans decreased to 3.68% in the April-June quarter against 3.78% in the previous quarter, while the net bad loan ratio declined to 1.58 % from 1.61%.
Recently, a media report said that the bank could sell its housing finance unit to private equity firms and may be looking for a valuation of about Rs 4,400 crore for ICICI Home Finance.
ICICI Home Finance accounts for nearly 10% of the "book value of total home loans" lent by ICICI.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has to give its nod for the deal to go through, as ICICI Home Finance comes under Non-bank financial companies (NBFCs), The Economic Times reported.
