HDFC Bank net profit up 30 percent, meets forecast

MUMBAI (Reuters) - HDFC Bank Ltd, India's No.3 lender by loan value, met forecasts with a 30 percent rise in quarterly profit on Tuesday led by higher loan growth, fee income and stable asset quality.

Mumbai-based HDFC Bank, which has posted profit growth of more than 30 percent every year for the last decade, said its net profit rose to 18.9 billion rupees in the quarter ended March from about 14.53 billion rupees a year earlier. Net interest income grew about 21 percent to 42.9 billion rupees.

According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, analysts had expected a net profit of 18.87 billion rupees for the bank, which is also listed in New York and competes with bigger local rivals State Bank of India and ICICI Bank .

Asset quality, valued by the market at about $31 billion, was stable with net non-performing loans as a percentage of total assets at 0.2 percent.

The bank's net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, is among the highest in the sector at 4.5 percent compared with 4.4 percent a year ago.

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Matt Driskill)