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India's ICICI Q2 net up 2.6 pct; beats forecast

Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:08am EDT

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MUMBAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO), India's No.2 lender, posted a small but unexpected rise in quarterly profit, helped by trading gains and lower provisions, which offset a rise in bad debts.

ICICI (IBN.N) said July-September net profit rose to 10.40 billion rupees ($221 million) from 10.14 billion rupees a year earlier. A Reuters poll of analysts had forecast net profit of 9.5 billion rupees.

ICICI has slowed lending as it tackles increasing bad loans in its mainstay retail market. Top lender State Bank of India (SBI.BO) is expected to say its July-September profit rose nearly 9 percent, helped by bond trading income, when it reports on Saturday, the poll found. [ID:nBOM521987]

Shares of ICICI, valued at more than $21.3 billion, rose by a quarter in July-September, beating a 20 percent rise in the sector index .BSEBANK and an 18 percent gain on the benchmark index .BSESN. ($1=47 rupees) (Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing by Deepak Kannan and John Mair)



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