<div>ICICI Bank Ltd, India's biggest private sector lender by assets, reported a marginally better-than-expected 12 per cent rise in quarterly profit and said its bad-loan ratio fell sequentially, sending its shares more than 5 per cent higher.</div><div> </div><div>Net profit rose to 29.76 billion rupees ($465 million) for its fiscal first quarter to June 30, from 26.55 billion rupees reported a year earlier, the lender, which is also listed in New York, said in a statement.</div><div> </div><div>Analysts on average had expected ICICI Bank to report a net profit of 29.2 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.</div><div> </div><div>Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans fell to 3.68 per cent from 3.78 per cent in the March quarter although they were higher than the 3.05 per cent reported a year earlier.</div><div> </div><div>Indian banks have seen their bad loans almost double in the past three years as a weak economy limited companies' ability to service debt. While the dominant state-run lenders account for the majority of the bad loans, private sector lenders like ICICI have also seen their troubled loans rise.</div><div> </div><div>Brokerage Ambit said this week it expected the pressure on ICICI's asset quality to continue with fresh addition of bad loans and increased slippages from restructured loans.</div><div> </div><div>ICICI's first-quarter net interest income grew 14 percent over a year earlier, while non-interest income rose 5 percent . Net interest margin rose to 3.54 per cent from 3.4 per cent a year earlier.</div><div> </div><div>Retail loans grew 25 per cent, faster than the 15 percent increase in overall credit.</div><div> </div><div>Shares in ICICI Bank were trading 5.8 per cent higher by 12:35 IST GMT in a Mumbai market that gained 1.26 per cent. The stock has underperformed the bank Nifty and the Nifty this year.</div>
