BENGALURU, Oct 23 Reuters Shares of India39;s secondlargest private lender ICICI Bank rose on Monday, after the bank posted a recordhigh quarterly profit.

The lender39;s stock rose as much as 1.3, landing it among the top gainers on the Nifty Private Bank and bluechip Nifty 50 indices.

ICICI Bank is the thirdheaviest stock on the Nifty 50 index and has the largest weightage in the Nifty Private Bank index.

The company39;s standalone net profit rose 35.8 to a record 102.61 billion rupees 1.23 billion in the second quarter from a year earlier. Analysts had expected a profit of 96.26 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.

The profit beat was driven by lower credit costs, according to analysts. Credit costs, or expenses charged to the borrower on a loan, were at 0.2 of average loans in July to September, compared to 0.5 in the earlier quarter.

Lower credit costs result in a larger demand for loans.

Loan growth of 18 yearonyear was led by unsecured loans personal and credit cards and business banking or small and medium enterprises, Jefferies said.

Despite net interest margin NIM, an indicator of the bank39;s profitability, climbing yearonyear to 4.53, it compressed sequentially from 4.78 in the earlier quarter.

ICICI Bank reported a similar sequential decline but yearonyear growth in NIM in the June quarter as well.

We expect margin normalisation to continue for ICICI Bank due to some moderation in unsecured loan growth amid central bank39;s rebuke and continued…