Public sector bank, Syndicate Bank has said that its net profit during the third quarter of the financial year has risen by an impressive 50.3 per cent to to Rs 508 crore.

The hike in the net profit during the quarter was mainly due to a one-time tax write back of Rs 141 crore. Without the one-time component, the bank's net profit would have risen 8.50 per cent to Rs 367 crore. The net interest income, which is the difference between interest earned and paid, increased 6 per cent to Rs 1,400 crore.

M G Sanghvi, CMD, Syndicate Bank said, "We have got the tax write-back based on our exposure in rural credit. We may continue to get this benefit in the March quarter as well. All state-owned banks also get the similar advantage. We are shifting focus to retail and mid corporate lending. We do not see any fresh threat to asset quality. In between April 1 and December 31, our loans expanded 9%."

The Bangalore based bank's loan book rose 17 per cent to Rs 1.37 lakh crore and the domestic credit grew 13 per cent to Rs 1.16 lakh crore. The Gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio fell 16 basis points to 2.31 per cent. The bank also increased provisions against bad loans to Rs 530 crore compared with Rs 480 crore in previous quarter.

The shares of the bank were trading 7 percent to Rs 129.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange this afternoon.