HDFC Bank on Saturday met Street estimates, posting a 20.3 per cent growth in net profit for the December quarter. The country’s second-largest private bank clocked a net profit of Rs 5,585.85 crore compared with Rs 4,642.60 crore in the corresponding period last year.

This rise in bottomline came on the back of a strong growth in net interest income (interest earned minus interest paid) even as other income too supplemented.

During the quarter, the bank’s NII grew almost 22 per cent to Rs 12,576.8 crore from Rs 10,314.3 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2017. The lender said this was driven by an asset growth of 23.7 per cent and a core net interest margin (NIM) which came in at 4.3 per cent for the quarter.

Its non-interest revenue stood at Rs 4,921 crore, rising 27.2 per cent over Rs 3,869.2 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal. Of this, the contribution of fees and commissions was Rs 3,646.8 crore against Rs 2,872.1 crore in the year-ago period.

The asset quality of the bank was largely stable though there was a marginal rise in the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in absolute terms.

The gross NPAs came in at Rs 10,902.86 crore compared with Rs 10,097.73 crore in the preceding quarter and Rs 8,234.88 crore in the same period last year.

The percentage of gross NPAs to gross advances was 1.38 per cent against 1.33 per cent on a sequential basis. Further, the net NPAs were at 0.42 per cent of the net advances as on December 31, 2018.

HDFC Bank said in its note to accounts that there was no divergence observed by the Reserve Bank of India (RB1) for the financial year ended March 31, 2018, with respect to its asset classification and provisioning.

However, during the quarter, provisions at HDFC Bank rose to Rs 2,211.53 crore from Rs 1,819.96 crore on a sequential basis and Rs 1,351.44 crore in the same period of the previous year.

There was a robust growth in its loan book with total advances at Rs 7,80,951 crore as of December 31, 2018. The bank added that domestic advances grew 24.1 per cent over December 31, 2017. While retail loans grew 24 per cent and wholesale loans 24.1 per cent, the ratio between the two was 55:45.