REFILE-UPDATE 1-First Bancorp Q2 profit beats Wall Street

(Refiles to fix typo in first paragraph) (Recasts, adds details, Wednesday's closing share price)

July 23 (Reuters) - Puerto Rican lender First BanCorp (FBP.N) reported a second-quarter profit that beat market estimates, helped partly by a significant decrease in total interest expense.

Net income was $33.0 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with $23.8 million, or 16 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average expected earnings of 12 cents per share, excluding items, according to Reuters Estimates.

Total interest expense fell 25 percent to $142.0 million.

"First BanCorp's net interest margin and consumer delinquency trends in both residential mortgage and automobile financing improved during the quarter in spite of the adverse economic environment," Chief Executive Luis Beauchamp said.

Net interest income increased 15 percent to $134.6 million for the quarter.

Provision for loan losses increased 68 percent to $41.3 million.

Shares of the company closed up more than 6 percent at $8.54 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Amiteshwar Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Pratish Narayanan)