ICICI Bank Q2 net jumps 14.5%

ICICI Bank, the country’s second largest non-state lender, on Saturday posted a better-than-expected 14.5% increase in second-quarter net profit, boosted by higher core income.

The Mumbai-based bank reported a net profit of ₹11,746 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared with ₹10,261 crore a year earlier and the average estimate of ₹10,952 crore by analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

Net interest income, which is the difference between a bank’s income from lending and its cost of funds, grew 9.5% to ₹20,048 crore from ₹18,308 crore a year earlier. Net interest margin (NIM), however, shrank to 4.27% from 4.53% in a quarter when banks enticed savers with higher interest rates to boost deposits growing slower than credit.

“Our expectation of the near-term NIM is that it will broadly be stable until the rate cut cycle starts,” said executive director Sandeep Batra. “We also expect credit and deposit growth growing in tandem.”

The bank’s domestic loans grew 15% from a year earlier to ₹12.77 lakh crore as on September 30.