HDFC Bank net profit up 20 percent, lags estimates

MUMBAI (Reuters) - HDFC Bank Ltd, India's second-biggest private sector lender by assets, on Tuesday reported a 20 percent rise in quarterly net profit, lagging estimates, due to higher tax expenses and provisioning for loan losses.

Net profit rose to 23.81 billion rupees ($388.51 million) in its fiscal second quarter to Sept. 30, from 19.82 billion rupees a year earlier, the Mumbai-headquartered bank said in a statement.

Analysts had on average expected a net profit of 24.25 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

($1 = 61.2850 rupees)

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)