HDFC Bank third-quarter net up 33% on loan growth, beats estimates

MUMBAI (Reuters) - HDFC Bank Ltd, India's largest private lender, on Saturday posted a nearly 33% jump in standalone net profit for the quarter to December helped by growth in its loans portfolio.

HDFC Bank reported a net profit of 74.16 billion Indian rupees ($1.04 billion) for its third quarter, up from 55.86 billion a year earlier, it said in a regulatory filing.

That topped the 70.59 billion rupees expected by analysts on average, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

Gross bad loans increased to 1.42% of total loans from 1.38%.

The bank's net interest margin (NIM), an indicator of profitability, remained stable at 4.2%.

At a time when the industry has seen subdued loan growth, the bank saw its grow 19.9%.

Deposits grew by 25.2%, the bank said.

The bank remains well capitalised, with a capital adequacy ratio of 18.5% at the end of the quarter, well above the regulatory requirement.

($1 = 71.0760 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nupur Anand; editing by Jason Neely)