ICICI Bank Ltd posted a 2.7 percent drop in net profit for the December 2018 ended quarter at Rs 1,604.91 crore when compared to Rs 1,650.24 crore a year ago.

Asset quality of the private lender improved in terms of gross non-performing assets (NPA) and net NPA on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Percentage of gross NPA dropped to 7.75 percent as against 8.54 percent in September 2018 and that of net NPA eased to 2.58 percent from 3.65 percent. The bank said that NPAs amounting to Rs 4,063 crore were recovered/upgraded/resolved through sale in the third quarter of 2018-19. Provisions were up by 18.8 percent to Rs 4,244 crore on a year-on-year basis in December 2018.

For the quarter under review ICICI bank's net interest income (the difference between interest earned and interest paid) rose by 21 percent to Rs 6,875 crore and net interest margin was 3.4 percent to compared to 3.33 percent in the year-ago period.

Non-interest income (excluding treasury income) amounted to Rs 3,404 crore in the third quarter, which is higher than Rs 3,101 crore in the same period last year. Fee income rose 16 percent to Rs 3,062 crore from Rs 2,639 crore in September 2018 ended quarter. Retail fee made up for 73 percent of the total fees.