HDFC Bank fourth-quarter net profit rises 20.3 percent

HDFC Bank Ltd, the second-biggest Indian lender by assets, on Saturday reported fourth-quarter net profit rose about a fifth to a record, although its bad loans ticked up.

Net profit rose 20.3 percent to 47.99 billion rupees ($724.92 million) in the three months ended March 31, from 39.9 billion rupees a year ago, the bank said.

Analysts had on average expected a net profit of 48.43 billion rupees for the most valuable Indian bank with a market capitalisation of about $77 billion, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 1.3 percent at end-March, compared with 1.29 percent in the previous quarter and 1.05 percent a year earlier.