国内英语新闻:China Merchants Bank profit up 57.4 pct in first three quarters

BEIJING, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- China Merchants Bank said Friday its profit rose 57.4 percent to 20.59 billion yuan (3.07 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters from one year earlier.

The jump in net profit was mainly due to higher interest income, the bank said in its business report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Also, total assets of the mid-sized lender had expanded to 2.36 trillion yuan by the end of September, up 14.10 percent from the end of 2009.

Additionally, the bank's non-performing loan ratio was 0.64 percent, down 0.18 percentage points from the beginning of this year.

Shares of the bank were down 2.41 percent at 14.57 yuan in Shanghai and down 1.13 percent at 21.95 HK dollars in Hong Kong Friday.