* ICBC Q3 net profit up 3.3 pct to 75 bln yuan
* NPL ratio 1.56 pct at end-Sept vs 1.57 pct at end-June
* Net interest margin rises to 2.17 pct from 2.16 pct end-June (Adds details, share price)
BEIJING, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) , the country’s biggest-listed lender by assets, reported on Monday a 3.3 percent rise in net profit for the third quarter, as loan quality and interest margins stabilised.
State-controlled ICBC, one of the world’s top banks by market capitalisation and assets, posted net profit of 75 billion yuan ($11.28 billion) for the three months through September against 72.6 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.
That was slightly above the 2.5 percent average net profit growth estimate of three analysts surveyed by Reuters.
ICBC’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was 1.56 percent at end-September, down from 1.57 percent at end-June. The volume of NPLs amounted to 220 billion yuan, representing an increase of 8.2 billion yuan from the end of last year.
The bank also slightly boosted its loan-loss allowance ratio - a measure of cash set aside as a percentage of reported NPLs - to 148.42 percent at end-September, still below a regulatory threshold of 150 percent.
ICBC’s net interest margin rose to 2.17 percent from 2.16 percent at the end of June.
ICBC’s Shanghai-listed shares closed up 0.97 percent ahead of the results announcement, compared with a 0.30 percent fall in the benchmark Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index. ($1 = 6.6466 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Shu Zhang, Matthew Miller and Engen Tham; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
