Mumbai: Country's top mortgage lender HDFC
on Wednesday posted 23 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 671.25 crore
for the December quarter even as its income declined.
Contrary to fears of bad debts rising, HDFC reported
decline in non-performing assets for the 20th quarter (or five
years) in a row.
However, the bank's total income fell by 5.56 per cent
at Rs 2,762.21 crore as the company had cut its total
expenditure, primarily because of less interest outgo.
For the nine-month period ended December 31, the company
posted a net profit of Rs 1,900 crore, a growth of 22.64 per
cent over the year-ago period.
On decline of non-performing asset, HDFC CEO Keki Mistry
said, "...if you look at December 2009, non-performing loans
stood at 0.94 per cent compared to 1.01 per cent in December,
2008."
The decline comes despite the mortgage lender disbursing
Rs 33,527 crore of loans during the first nine months of this
fiscal, up 23 per cent over Rs 27,211 crore in the year-ago
period.
HDFC shares settled up 0.55 per cent at Rs 2,524.10 on
BSE today over its close yesterday.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 21:41