IndusInd Bank touched a day’s high of Rs 1,077.85 on the NSE on Wednesday, after posting a much stronger than expected Q1 profit.

Net profit for the quarter came in at Rs 1,002.5 crore, up 46.5% from Rs 684 crore in the same quarter last year.

This comfortably beat what analysts had been expecting, a poll had pencilled in profit of around Rs 725 crore. Net interest income, the gap between what the bank earns and pays out in interest, rose 1% to Rs 4,685 crore.

The net interest margin also improved slightly to 3.57% from 3.46% a year earlier. Asset quality showed clear signs of healing too.

Gross bad loans eased to 3.25% of total advances, down from 3.43% in the March quarter, while net bad loans fell to 0.95% from 1%.

Provisions for such loans dropped to Rs 1,340 crore, down from Rs 1,738 crore a year ago.

Pre-provision operating profit, which strips out these provisions, rose to Rs 2,773 crore from Rs 2,567 crore, even as total income from operations slipped slightly to Rs 6,471 crore from Rs 6,797 crore.

The bank’s deposits grew to Rs 4,14,766 crore from Rs 3,97,144 crore a year earlier, while advances actually dipped a touch to Rs 3,26,274 crore from Rs 3,33,694 crore. Its capital adequacy ratio strengthened to 17.15% from 16.63%.

MD and CEO Rajiv Anand said the bank continued to focus on ‘disciplined growth, balance sheet resilience and franchise quality’ during the quarter, adding that it is working to diversify its lending across retail, SME and rural businesses.

At market close on 22 July, IndusInd Bank shares settled at Rs 1,069.30 on the NSE, up 0.55% from the previous close of Rs 1,063.45.

The stock is up over 27% for the year so far and sits close to its 52-week high of Rs 1,077.85, touched the same day, while well above its 52-week low of Rs 710.60 hit last September.

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