Nov 8 Reuters State Bank of India, the country39;s largest lender, reported a rise in secondquarter profit on Friday, helped by healthy core lending income.

The staterun lender39;s net profit rose 28 to 183.31 billion rupees 2.17 billion compared with 143.3 billion rupees a year ago.

That exceeded analysts39; expectation of 161.89 billion rupees, as per estimates compiled by LSEG.

State Bank of India39;s interest income rose 12.3 to 1.14 trillion rupees.

While demand for loans remains strong, lenders have made higher provisions during the quarter for loans that become nonperforming.

State Bank of India39;s provisions and contingencies rose sharply to 45.06 billion rupees in the quarter, from 1.15 billion rupees a year ago, while provisions for bad loans doubled to 36.31 billion rupees.

Its gross bad loans as a proportion of total loans stood at 2.13 at the end of September, versus 2.21 at the end of June.

Private sector lenders Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank and RBL Bank also raised their provisions towards bad loans in the second quarter, amid rising credit card and microfinance delinquencies.

1 84.3490 Indian rupees

Reporting by Nishit Navin and Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala

Source Reuters