ICICI Bank beats analyst forecast, stock soars 5%

Gross NPA decline to 3.54% in Q1 FY13 from 3.62% in the previous quarter

ICICI Bank has soared almost 5% to Rs 949 after the private sector lender reported a better-than-expected 36% year-on-year (yoy) grwoth in net profit at Rs 1,815 crore for the quarter ended June 2012, on back of higher interest income. Analysts, on an average, expected net profit of Rs 1,709 crore for the quarter. Net interest income grew 19% at Rs 3,695 crore on yoy basis.

The bank's gross non-performing-assets (NPAs) has  declined to 3.54% in Q1 FY13 from 3.62% in the previous quarter. Net NPAs too decline to 0.71% from 0.73% on quarter-on-quarter basis.

The stock opened at Rs 932 and hit a low of Rs 926 before the announcement of Q1 results on the NSE. A combined 4.75 million shares have changed hands on the counter so far, against an average around 3.42 million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks.