China's AgBank posts 3.48% rise in first-half profit

HONG KONG/BEIJING, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (AgBank) (601288.SS), the country's third-largest lender by assets, reported a 3.48% rise in first-half net profit on Tuesday.

AgBank said net profit for the first six months of the year totalled 133.23 billion yuan ($18.27 billion), up from a restated 128.75 billion yuan a year earlier.

"Looking forward into the second half of the year, as China’s economy has strong resilience and potential of development, its fundamentals of long-term sustainability will remain unchanged," the bank said in a filing.

The bank said it will improve financial services for the real economy, provide more support to the manufacturing industry and tech innovation.

The bank's net interest margin - a key gauge of profitability - stood at 1.66% at end-June, down from 1.7% at the end of March.

AgBank's non-performing loan ratio came in at 1.35% at the end of the second quarter, down from 1.37% at the end of March, the filing showed.

($1 = 7.2916 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Reporting by Selena Li and Ziyi Tang, Editing by Louise Heavens

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