Vijaya Bank, Bangalore-based public sector lender, today announced its net profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal.

The bank posted a net profit of around Rs 143.3 crore in the latest quarter, as compared to a net loss of Rs 76.64 crore in the same quarter of the last financial year.

The bank’s total income for the quarter rose 15.2% to Rs 1,463.42 crore as compared to the same period last fiscal.

The boost in net profit was mainly because of Rs 90 crore write back of marked-to-mark provisions, 53.75% increase in net interest income at Rs 341 crore and trading income of Rs 72 crore, an increase of 3.6 times over the same quarter of last year and 51.6% increase in other income at Rs 162.4 crore in the first quarter ending June 30, 2009, as compared to the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Mr. Albert Tauro, Chairman and MD, told that earnings for the first quarter was impressive in the light of fairly slackened business growth. The bank’s net interest income proceeded to feature progressive improvement sequentially as well as on quarter-on-quarter basis, resulting to a robust growth in operating profit.

Bank’s operating profit climbed up by 35.4% to Rs 209.7 crore for the first quarter of the present fiscal, as compared to the corresponding period last year. The bank made a provision of Rs 65 crore towards wage arrears, planning for superannuation benefits to the tune of Rs 44.38 crore, provision for taxes of Rs 102.75 crore and provision for non performing assets to the tune of Rs 104.6 crore.

The cost of deposits has descended from 7.16% to 6.82%. Operating cost showed 68.72% growth during the first quarter, primarily due to extra provisioning of Rs 65 crore towards wage revision under the ongoing two-way settlement and Rs 44.38 crore on account of superannuation benefits.

Return on assets stood at 0.93%. The share of net non performing assets rose to 1.58%, as compared to 0.68% in the period last year. The earning per share was Rs 3.31 for the quarter. The capital sufficiency ratio under Basel-II stood at 13.34%, because of better credit profile.

Shares of Vijaya Bank on Friday closed at Rs 43.30, up 0.23% or Rs 0.10, on BSE. Total volume of shares traded was 416,280.