ICICI Bank rises as Q3 profit tops estimates

Shares of India's ICICI Bank were up around 3% in the early trade.

This comes after the country's second-biggest private lender reported a better-than-expected third-quarter profit, aided by robust loan growth.

The lender reported a record high standalone net profit of ₹10,272 crore ($1.24 billion) in the quarter ended December 31, 2024. This was higher than the street expectations of ₹10,025 crore, as per LSEG data.The robust growth in the profits was aided by a 13.4% year-on-year rise in the net interest income to ₹18,678 crore.

In the December quarter, the domestic loan book expanded 18.8% year-on-year. This was driven by a 21.4% year-on-year growth in retail loan portfolio. The retail loan book now accounts for 54.3% of the total loan portfolio as of 31 December 2023.

However, the net interest margin (NIM), the key measure of a bank’s profitability, declined to 4.43% in Q3-2024 from 4.65% in Q3-2023.

Meanwhile, the asset quality remained stable. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) ratio dropped to 2.30% in the December quarter from 2.48% in the same period last year. The provisioning coverage ratio (PCR) on non-performing assets was 80.7% at December 31, 2023. On the liability side, the current account and savings account (CASA) deposits accounted for 39.4% of the total deposits in Q3FY24.

(Inputs from Reuters)