Mumbai, July 19: Led by loan growth and fee income, HDFC Bank today beat Street estimates to post a 33.6 per cent rise in net profits for the first quarter ended June 30. The country’s second largest private sector bank recorded a net profit of Rs 1,084.98 crore compared with Rs 811.71 crore in the same period of last year.

The net profit was marginally above analyst estimates of around Rs 1,073 crore.

HDFC Bank’s results led to the share hitting a new high of Rs 519.50 on the BSE today in intra-day trades. However, the scrip ended off these highs at Rs 510.80, a loss of 0.70 per cent. The bank had gone for a stock split and the face value of its shares now stand at Rs 2 per share.

The good performance on the bottomline was on account of higher loan growth and more fees; lower provisions also helped. However, HDFC Bank’s net interest income (interest earned minus interest paid) was a tad below analyst estimates.

The period saw HDFC Bank’s net interest income (NII) rising 18.6 per cent to Rs 2,848 crore. Brokerages such as Sharekhan had estimated this to come at around Rs 2,878 crore.

During the quarter, HDFC Bank earned more from selling mutual funds and insurance products, which led to higher other income.

The bank said non-interest revenue for the period stood at Rs 1,120 crore, which was primarily contributed by fees and commissions of Rs 922.7 crore, a growth of nearly 16 per cent over Rs 796.3 crore in the previous year and foreign exchange/derivative revenues of Rs 230.1 crore, up nearly 34 per cent over the same period last year.

An improvement in asset quality led to a dip in provisions and contingencies, which came down from Rs 555 crore last year to Rs 443.7 crore for the quarter ended June 30. Reflecting the better asset quality, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) came down to 1.04 per cent of gross advances against 1.21 per cent last year, while net NPAs stood at 0.18 per cent of net advances.

The quarter saw the bank’s total balance sheet size increasing 23 per cent to touch Rs 285,942 crore.

Gross advances stood at Rs 176,964 crore, a growth of 29 per cent.