India's PNB Housing Finance posts Q1 profit rise on steady home loan demand

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's PNB Housing Finance reported a near 25% rise in first-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by a steady demand for home loans.

The company's consolidated net profit rose to 4.33 billion rupees ($51.7 million) for the quarter ended June 30, up from 3.47 billion rupees a year earlier.

Demand for premium housing in the country has been strong even as the affordable segment saw some pressure due to high interest rates.

Home financiers saw strong disbursement in the quarter as home-buyers pinned hopes of a rate cut later in the year.

PNB Housing, a unit of state-run lender Punjab National Bank, said its total disbursements rose 19% to 43.98 billion rupees.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, rose 4% to 6.51 billion rupees.

PNB Housing Finance has cut back on corporate loans over the last few quarters due to increased bad debt in the segment, aiding its bottomline

The home financier's gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans improved to 1.35% at the end of June, from 3.76% a year earlier and 1.50% a quarter ago.

Shares of PNB Housing Finance, which rose as much as 2.6% after the results were last up 0.6%

($1 = 83.6925 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nishit Navin in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)