Mumbai, Oct 26 (IANS): The country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank Friday said its net profit surged by 30.12 percent to Rs.1,956.1 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year, led by strong loan growth.

The bank has posted net profit of Rs.1,956.11 crore for the quarter ended Sep 30, 2012, as compared to Rs.1,503.19 crore recorded during the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal year, registering a growth of 30.12 percent year-on-year.

The company's total income increased from Rs.9,897.17 crore in the second quarter of 2011-12 to Rs.12,069.3 crore in July-September quarter this year, ICICI Bank said in a statement.

The bank's net non-performing assets (NPA) increased to 0.78 percent in the quarter under review as compared to 0.71 percent in the previous quarter. ICICI Bank's gross NPA stood at 3.54 percent during the second quarter of 2012-13.

Share price of ICICI Bank dropped by 0.87 percent to Rs.1,076.75 at the Bombay Stock Exchange Friday.

The bank's second quarter performance is better than the analysts estimate.

"The bank has delivered another good set of numbers, both on the operating level as well as on asset quality. Net interest income growth was quite strong for the quarter at 35 percent year-on-year, which was slightly above our estimates," said Vaibhav Agrawal, vice president of research and banking at Angel Broking.

"Overall the results are positive and we continue to maintain a positive outlook on the bank as a whole," he said.