Two more lenders post double-digit profit jump

Victor Zhong and Reuters

The mainland's big four banks all recorded double-digit profit growth with Agricultural Bank (1288) and Bank of China (3988) rising about 12 percent.

Agricultural Bank posted a 12.4 percent year-on-year growth in its first-half profit of 122.28 billion yuan (HK$147.22 billion), the fastest first-half growth since 2014.

No interim dividend was declared, compared to basic earnings per share of 0.34 yuan.

Its net interest margin dropped by two basis points to 2.12 percent while net interest income rose by 6.21 percent to 283.36 billion yuan.

The non-performing loan ratio went down to 1.50 from 1.57.

This came as Bank of China recorded a first-half net profit of 112.8 billion yuan, up 12 percent year on year - the biggest jump since 2013.

Its net interest margin narrowed by 11 basis points to 1.76 percent.

The bank's net interest margins will "still face a certain downward pressure," said vice president Wang Wei.

As for asset quality, the lender's non-performing loan went down by 6.93 billion yuan to 200.35 billion yuan. The NPL ratio was 1.3 percent, down 0.16 percentage point compared with the prior year-end.

"New non-performing loans abroad are mainly concentrated in industries such as real estate and aviation that are affected by the epidemic," said BoC's chief risk officer Liu Jiandong.

The results are in the same vein as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398), Bank of Communications (3328) and China Construction Bank (0939), all of which reported more than 9 percent first-half net profit growth on Friday.

China Construction Bank said its net interest margin will be narrower in the second half.

The bank posted an 11.39 percent rise in first-half profit on Friday.

Meanwhile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said its net profit rose 9.87 percent in the first half from the same period last year.

ICBC's NPL ratio dipped to 1.54 percent at the end of June from 1.58 percent at the end of the first quarter.