The net profit of China's Huaxia Bank in the first half was expected to rise more than 90 percent over the same period last year, the lender said on Friday on its website.

The medium-sized bank's net profit in the first half of 2007 was 1.01 billion yuan (144.3 million U.S. dollars), with earnings per share of 0.24 yuan.

The rising profit was mainly from an increasing asset scale, an enlarged interest margin between loans and deposits and declining tax fees, it said.

Shares of Huaxia, which listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2003, closed at 10.05 yuan on Friday, up 5 percent or 0.5 yuan over the previous close.

By March, its assets totaled 597.97 billion yuan. Its first quarter net profit was 822 million yuan, up 80.43 percent over the same period last year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2008)