Net interest income grew 12.6 per cent to Rs 14,172.90 crore in the December quarter.HDFC Bank, the country's biggest lender by market value, reported a 32.8 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 7,416.4 crore in the third quarter ended December 2019.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 5585.85 crore in the same quarter of the previous year, the bank said.Analysts were expecting profit of Rs 7,059 crore on an average, as per Refinitiv Eikon data quoted by Reuters.Net interest income (NII), or the difference between interest earned on loans and that paid on deposits, grew 12.6 per cent from Rs 12,576 crore to Rs 14,172.90 crore, driven by growth of 19.9 per cent in advances and 25.5 per cent in deposits, HDFC Bank said in a statement. Other income jumped by 35.52 per cent at Rs 6,669.28 during the quarter under review, the bank added.

The main component of other income, viz.

fees - commissions grew by 24.1 per cent to Rs 4,526.8 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019.The net interest margin for the quarter remained stable at 4.2 per cent.There was, however, a marginal decline in asset quality.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 1.42 per cent at the end of the December quarter as against 1.38 per cent in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.The shares of HDFC Bank had closed lower by 0.7 per cent at Rs 1,277 on the BSE on Friday, ahead of its Q3 numbers.

The BSE Sensex had ended higher by 12.81 points at 41,945 on the same day.