Bank of China (BOC) said Thursday that its July-September net profit was up 18.83 percent from a year earlier, bucking downward trend in the first half of this year to 21.11 billion yuan (3.1 billion U.S. dollars).

Earnings per share in the first nine months stood at 0.24 yuan, slightly up 0.01 yuan over the same period last year, said the BOC in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Net interests income in the third quarter reached 40.9 billion yuan in the third quarter, rising 7.93 percent from that in the second quarter.

Net fee and commission in the July-September period was up 21.97 percent year on year to 11.56 billion yuan.

The bank's loans and advances to customers rose to 4.7 trillion yuan at the end of September, surging 42.63 percent from the end of last year, as the lender echoed with the government's stimulus plans.

Chinese lenders extended a record 8.67 trillion yuan of new loans in the first nine months, far ahead of this year's minimum target of 5 trillion yuan under the government's relatively loose monetary policies to stimulate economy.

As of the end of September, non-performing loans outstanding totaled 75.3 billion yuan, down 2.18 billion yuan from the end of June. Bad loans ratio of the bank was 1.6 percent, 0.2 percentage points lower than the end of June.

Total assets of the bank totaled 8.34 trillion yuan by the end of September, up 19.94 percent from the end of last year.