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India's PNB Housing Finance reported a 45.8% rise in the second-quarter profit, aided by healthy demand for home loans and improved asset quality.
The Indian said its consolidated net profit after tax rose to 3.83 billion rupees ($46.06 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30 from 2.63 billion rupees a year earlier.
Net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, stood at 3.95% for the quarter. Investment in real estate has been strong amid relentless demand for housing and growing consumer confidence even as borrowing costs remain high.
PNB Housing, a unit of state-run lender Punjab National Bank said its net interest income rose 2% to 6.61 billion rupees for the September quarter.
Its asset quality improved, with gross bad lomortgage lenderans as a percentage of total loans slipping to 1.78% at the end of September, from 3.76% at the end of June.
Total disbursements for the quarter jumped 16% year-on-year basis to 41.80 billion rupees during the quarter.In August, the lender resolved and recovered its large corporate non-performing account of 7.84 billion rupees.
