The country's private sector lender, ICICI Bank posted increase in net profit by 21 per cent at Rs 2304 crore in the fourth quarter which ended on March 31, 2013. Stable loan growth and higher margins helped to boost up the net profit.

The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 1902 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Net interest income rose by 22 per cent to Rs 3,803 crore as compared to Rs 3,105 crore in Q4 FY12. Other income decreased marginally to Rs 2,208 crore on the back of muted fee income and lower dividend.

During the quarter net interest margin (NIM) stood at 3.3 per cent.

Provisions during the fourth quarter remained almost flat at Rs 460 crore against Rs 469 crore in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, however, provisions increased from Rs 369 crore in the December-quarter.

For the full year ended March 31, 2013, net profit increased 29 per cent to Rs 8,325 crore from Rs 6,465 crore in FY12.

As on end-March, the total loan book grew by 14 per cent to 2.90-lakh crore from Rs 2.53-lakh crore in FY12.

"Retail lending, which accounts for 37 per cent of total loans, rose by 25 per cent......Revival in corporate loan growth will take another six months. Currently, greater demand is coming from working capital loans," said Mrs. Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank. "Deposit growth rate will continue to remain under pressure," she added.

NIM stood at 3.11 per cent for the full year ended March FY13 (from 2.73 per cent in FY12).

"We will work towards improving NIM by 10 basis points," Mrs. Kochhar said.

The bank's net non-performing asset (NPA) ratio was 0.64 per cent as on March 31, 2013, from 0.62 per cent as on March 31 last year.