Mumbai, Oct 17 (IANS): India's largest home lender, Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC), Monday reported a 20.2 percent rise in net profit for the quarter ended Sep 30 at Rs.970.7 crore.

Income from operations rose 40.2 percent to Rs.4,077.5 crore in the quarter, compared to Rs.2,906.55 crore in the previous corresponding quarter, the company said in a regulatory statement.

Profit from sale of investments increased 47.5 percent to Rs.87 crore in the July-September quarter from Rs.59 crore during the like period of 2010-11.

The company's loan book grew to Rs.126,992 crore in the second quarter, compared to Rs.106,287 crore in the previous corresponding quarter.

At a press conference here, HDFC vice chairman and chief executive Keki Mistry said the net interest margin of the lending major was recorded at 4.3 percent during the quarter.

Keki said he expected the Reserve Bank of India to increase interest rates again by 25 basis points during the next review of the monetary policy.

He, however, added that the continuous rate tightening by the central bank had not had any impact on the asset quality of the lender.

At the Bombay Stock Exchange, the HDFC scrip was ruling 0.93 percent higher at Rs.672.55, about an hour before closing bell. It had risen to an intra-day high of Rs.677 earlier.