HDFC Bank Q2 net up a fifth, in line with estimates

MUMBAI (Reuters) - HDFC Bank Ltd , India's second-biggest private sector lender by assets, reported on Wednesday a 20.5 percent rise in quarterly net profit, in line with analysts' estimates, on higher interest income.

The Mumbai-based lender said net profit rose to 28.69 billion rupees ($440 million) for its fiscal second quarter to Sept. 30, from 23.81 billion rupees a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 28.81 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Gross non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans fell to 0.91 percent from 0.95 percent in the June quarter.

($1 = 65.2000 rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)