At a time some non-banking finance companies continue to face a tough time, Bajaj Finance Ltd on Wednesday reported its highest quarterly consolidated net profit following a robust growth in its core income.

Net profits of the non-banking finance company came in at Rs 1,614 crore, a 52 per cent jump over Rs 1,060 crore in the year-ago quarter. This came on the back of a 42 per cent growth in its net interest income (NII) at Rs 4,537 crore against Rs 3,206 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. Fees and commission income also contributed to the good performance as it rose to Rs 687.36 crore from Rs 466.38 crore in the year-ago period.

The numbers led to its stock rising almost five per cent, or Rs 208.70, to Rs 4,421.75 on the BSE.

The lender has an exposure to Karvy Stock Broking through its securities lending business, Without naming Karvy, Bajaj Finance said in an investor presentation that the securities lending business has a “delinquent broker account” with principal outstanding of Rs 303 crore on which it has taken an accelerated provision of Rs 85 crore.

Despite a quarter marked by continued slowdown, a wide product offering played a role behind the good performance. The non-bank lender’s asset under management (AUM) as on December 31, 2019, rose to Rs 1,45,092 crore, up 35 per cent from Rs 1,07,507 crore. Of this, the largest gain came from the rural lending business which showed a growth of 49 per cent. This was followed by mortgage lending at 44 per cent and the consumer B2C business at 43 per cent.

According to Bajaj Finance, new loans booked in terms of volume increased 13 per cent to 76.7 lakh from 67.7 lakh. Existing customers contributed to 68 per cent of the new loans booked during the period.

According to the company, trends on its large portfolios across loan and consumption categories (electronics, mobile, furniture, apparel) showed a significant demand slowdown in the third quarter.

However, it added that there was some uptick in the consumption categories since December, which has continued in January so far.