Federal Bank third-quarter profit jumps 28 percent, beats estimates

(Reuters) - Private-sector lender Federal Bank Ltd posted a 28.3 percent jump in third-quarter profit on Thursday, as a healthy increase in interest income helped offset the impact of higher provisions.

Net profit was 3.34 billion rupees ($46.82 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, compared to 2.60 billion rupees a year earlier, the Kerala-based lender said.

That compares to analysts' average estimates of a profit of 2.97 billion rupees, I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv showed.

Asset quality was largely stable, with gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans at 3.14 percent at the end of December, compared to 3.11 percent in the previous quarter and 2.52 percent a year earlier.

Interest earned rose 18.1 percent to 29.54 billion rupees, while provisions climbed 17 percent.

($1 = 71.3400 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)