India's Kotak Mahindra Bank posts 26% rise in Q4 net profit

India's Kotak Mahindra Bank KOTAKBANK reported a 26% increase in fourth-quarter net profit on Saturday, buoyed by higher core lending income and healthy loan growth.

The private lender's standalone net profit, excluding subsidiaries, rose to 41.33 billion rupees ($495.71 million) in the January-March quarter, from 34.96 billion rupees in the same period last year.

That was higher than analysts' forecast of 33.28 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.

Its gross non-performing assets (NPA) ratio was at 1.39% at the end of March, versus 1.73% at the end of December.

($1 = 83.3760 Indian rupees)